Song of Solomon 7:6

Son 7:6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!

Ver. 6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights.] Emphatica haec admodum sunt, cum toties exclamatio ponatur, saith one. This is a most emphatic exclamation, proceeding from admiration, and importing that all he could say of her was too little. Well might the prophet say, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride, so doth thy God over thee." {Isa 62:5} Hence he can make no end here of commending her; but, having finished one praise, he presently begins another. This yields infinite matter of comfort to the saints, that Christ loves them so dearly, prizeth them so highly, praiseth them so heartily. Howbeit, let not them hereupon "turn again to folly," {Psa 85:8} or give way to carnal security. Laetemur in domino, sed caveamus a recidivo. Argue not from mercy to liberty - that is the devil’s logic - but from mercy to duty, as those good souls do. {Ezr 9:13-14} Having received such and such, both privative and positive favours, should we again break thy commandments? There is so much unthankfulness and disingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy, that holy Ezra thinks heaven and earth would be ashamed of it. "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" saith the apostle. {Rom 6:1} And it is as if he should say, that were most unreasonable, and to a good heart, impossible. A man may as well say the sea burns, or fire cools, as that assurance of Christ’s love breeds careless and loose living. They that hold so, know not the compulsive power of Christ’s love, {2Co 5:14} nor what belongs to the life of God {Eph 4:18}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A brief dialogue; Son 7:6-9 are spoken by the king, Son 7:9 and Son 7:10 by the bride.

Son 7:6

A general sentiment.

How fair, and what a charm hast thou,

O love! Among delightsome things!

Compare Son 2:7, note; Son 8:6-7, note.

Son 7:7

This thy stature - The king now addresses the bride, comparing her to palm, vine, and apple-tree for nobility of form and pleasantness of fruit; and the utterances of her mouth to sweetest wine.

Son 7:9

For my beloved, that goeth down sweetly - Words of the bride interrupting the king, and finishing his sentence, that goeth smoothly or pleasantly for my beloved. Compare Pro 23:31.

Son 7:10

His desire is toward me - All his affection has me for its object. The bride proceeds to exercise her power over his loving will.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Verse 6. How fair and how pleasant] Thou art every way beautiful, and in every respect calculated to inspire pleasure and delight.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. for delights] Better, among delights, i.e. how surpassingly delightful is love above all other pleasures of life. The word translated delights does not necessarily, or even generally, mean sensuous delights, as some say. Cp. Pro_19:10; Mic_1:16; Mic_2:9. This sudden turn to the praise of love, not the beloved, is abrupt, but it has frequent parallels in the love poetry of the East, cp. the ode written out for Wetzstein at Kenakir. (Cp. his Essay on the Threshing-Board, loc. cit.) That the Heb. verb yâphâh may be used of love in this abstract sense may be inferred from Eze_28:7, where the noun of this root is used in a similar abstract way in the phrase, “the beauty of thy wisdom.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

How fair and how pleasant art thou? it were infinite to reckon up all the particulars of thy beauty; in one word, thou art universally amiable beyond expression.

For delights; for those various lovely features which are in thee, and for the great and manifold delights which are or may be enjoyed in conversing with thee.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. O love — That is, O lovely one. Admiration is expressed for the general effect of the special qualities now enumerated. The aggregate of the whole is most fascinating.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 6-9. (Song of the bridegroom rejoicing over the bride. ) How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. I said, I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of the branches thereof: let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy breath like apples; and thy mouth like the best wine, that goeth down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of them that are asleep. The abstract "love" is plainly here used for the concrete, "O loved one." It is just possible that the meaning may be How delightful is the enjoyment of love! but the bodily description which follows suggests that the words are addressed directly to Shulamith. We certainly have in 1Co 13, an apostolic apostrophe to love, which Delitzsch calls the Apostle Paul"s spiritual song of songs. But it would be somewhat irrelevant here. The king is deeply moved as he watches the beautiful figure before him, and delights in the thought that so lovely a creature is his own. The rapture which he pours out may be taken either as a recollection of how he was captivated in the past, or the past may be used for the present, as it frequently is in Hebrew. The meaning is the same in both cases. The palm tree may be selected on account of its elegance, but it is commonly employed in Eastern poetry as the emblem of love. The mystical writers use it to denote the Divine manifestation. The comparison of the breasts to clusters of grapes is quite natural, but no doubt reference is intended to the fruit as luscious and refreshing. Both the palm and the vine in the East are remarkable for the abundance and beauty of their fruits. In the case of the palm brown or golden-yellow clusters, which crown the summit of the stem and impart a wonderful beauty to the tree, especially when seen in the evening twilight." The palm and the vine are both employed in Scripture in close connection with the Church. "The righteous shall flourish as the palm tree;" "The vine brought out of Egypt" (Ps 80), and the "vineyard of the beloved", (Isa 5) and the "true vine," to which the Lord Jesus Christ compares himself, remind us that the illustration was perfectly familiar among the Jews; and we can scarcely doubt that the reference in this case would be understood. The Lord delighteth in those "fruits of righteousness" which come forth from the life and love of his people. They are the true adornment of the Church. The people of God are never so beautiful in the eyes of their Saviour as when they are covered with gifts and graces in their active expression in the world. Then it is that he himself fills his Church with his presence. The ninth verse is somewhat difficult to explain. The words are no doubt still in the lips of the king. There is no change of speaker until ver. 10, when Shulamith replies to the king"s adoring address. Ginsburg says, "Her voice is not merely compared to wine because it is sweet to everybody, but to such wine as would be sweet to a friend, and on that account is more valuable and pleasant." The Authorized Version is supported by some critics as the best, "causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." Delitzsch adheres to this. The LXX renders it thus: iakanoume mou kai odousin , "accommodating itself to my lips and teeth." So Symmachus, prostiyemenov . Jerome, Labiisque et dentibus illius ad ruminandum. Luther strangely renders, "which to my friend goes smoothly down and speaks of the previous year" (pointing as Another rendering is, "which comes unawares upon the lips of the sleepers." Some think it refers to the smacking of the lips after wine. "Generous wine is a figure of the love responses of the beloved, sipped in, as it were, with pleasing satisfaction, which hover around the sleepers in delightful dreams, and fill them with hallucinations." Another reading substitutes "the ancient" for "them that are asleep." The general meaning must be wine that is very good and easily taken, or which one who is a good judge of wine will praise. It is possible that there is some slight corruption in the text. The passage is not to be rendered with absolute certainty. Delitzsch and others think that it is an interruption of the bride"s, but they have little support for that view. The bride begins to speak at ver.

10.

Vers. 6-13. Dialogue between the king and the bride.

I ENTRANCE OF THE KING.

1. His praise of love. Perhaps the last words of the chorus were overheard by the king as he approached the bride. He assents; he is content to be held captive in the tresses of the bride"s hair; for love is fair and pleasant above all delightful" things. The bridegroom is not here using the word with which he so often addresses the bride, (as in Son_1:9 Son_4:1 Son_6:4) which is translated, "O my love," or perhaps better, "O my friend." In this place we have the word ordinarily used for the affection of love; and perhaps it is best to take it in that sense here. Among all delightful things there is nothing so beautiful, so fair to contemplate, so full of interest; there is nothing so pleasant, nothing which gives so much comfort and peace and joy as true and faithful love. The king is happy in the bondage of which the chorus had spoken. Indeed, true love is not bondage in any proper sense of the word. It was God himself who said, "It is not good for man to be alone;" God who said, "I will make him an help meet for him." God gave man affections. When he made man after his own image, he set in his heart a reflection of that love which more than any other of his attributes enters into the very being and essence of Almighty God. That love needs objects on which to exert itself; the love of parent, child, or wife is a preparation, a training for the highest form of love, the blessed love of God. Loneliness, as a rule, is not good; it tends to concentrate a man"s thoughts upon himself. He finds no outlet for the affections which God has given him: some of them, and those among the best and highest, are in danger of sinking into atrophy; there is great risk of his becoming a prey to selfishness, and the bondage of selfishness is hard and grinding and joyless. Sensual love is not love in the true sense; it is one of the worst and most unfeeling forms of selfishness; it thinks only of selfish pleasure, and reeks nothing of the misery and ruin which it brings upon others; it makes a man the slave of evil passions; it tends to wretchedness. The service of God is perfect freedom; so, in a lesser sense, is the service of any pure and holy affection. True wedded love tends to set a man free from the bonds of selfishness; it gives him scope for the exercise of his best affections, and helps him to rise upwards towards that highest love which alone can give abiding happiness. Love, the bridegroom says, is among all delightful things the fairest and the most pleasant. The bride in the next chapter expresses the same belief, "Love is strong as death." "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." Wedded love is a parable of the holy love of God. The king in the song is led captive by the love of the bride. The saints of God, like St. Paul, St. James, St. Jude, delight in describing themselves as "the servants of God," "the slaves of God." God so formed our nature for himself that the soul can find an adequate object for its supreme affections only in him. Therefore he bids us love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, because our highest powers can find their proper exercise only thus; and it is in the exercise of the highest powers that the highest happiness is found. It is the love of God that sheds glory and joy and blessedness through heaven, his dwelling place, because the blessed angels love him perfectly, and, dwelling in love, do his holy will with a glad, undoubting obedience. And so in various lower degrees it is the love of God which makes religion what it is to his people, very blessed and holy; which makes life worth living; which gives them in the midst of their shortcomings glimpses more or less vivid of that holiest joy which is the blessedness of heaven. Joy in the Lord is one of the fruits of the Spirit; it follows immediately upon the highest grace of love; it issues out of it. (Gal_5:22) And because it issues out of love, it is enjoined upon us as our duty as well as our highest privilege; for "the first of all the commandments is this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God;" and a corollary of that first commandment is, "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice". (Php_4:4) Among earthly delights the pure love of wedlock is, as the king says, the fairest and the most pleasant; and of all highest joys that the human soul can attain unto, the supreme, the transcendent joy, comes from the holy love of God.

2. His praise of the bride. He compares her to a palm tree, to a vine. Both are fair to look upon, both have sacred associations. The image of the vine recalls to our thoughts the holy allegory in John 15. The Saviour is the true Vine; his people are the branches. They must bring forth fruit, for the branch that beareth not fruit is taken away; and in order to bear fruit they must abide in him, in spiritual union with the Lord, who is the Life. The palm tree also occurs in Scripture imagery: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree". (Psa_92:12) Several characteristics make the palm tree an apt emblem of the faithful servant of God. There is its tall and graceful appearance, its evergreen foliage, its fruitfulness, and perhaps especially the fact that both fronds and fruit grow at the topmost height of the tree, high above the earth and as near as possible to heaven. An apt illustration by St. Gregory the Great ("Moral.," on Job_19:4-9) is quoted in Smith"s "Dictionary of the Bible:" "Well is the life of the righteous likened to a palm, in that the palm below is rough to the touch, and in a manner enveloped in dry bark, but above it is adorned with fruit fair even to the eye; below, it is compressed by the enfoldings of its bark; above, it is spread out in amplitude of beautiful greenness. For so is the life of the elect, despised below, beautiful above. Down below it is, as it were, enfolded in many barks, in that it is straitened by innumerable afflictions; but on high it is expanded into a foliage, as it were, of beautiful greenness by the amplitude of the rewarding.

3. The bride continues the bridegroom"s words. "I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof." These words have been regarded by some commentators as spoken by the bride. In the next verse certainly the bride interrupts the bridegroom and finishes his sentence. It may well be that here also she corrects the similitude of the bridegroom and finishes his sentence. It may well be that here also she corrects the similitude of the bridegroom, and applies it to him rather than to herself; the words, "I said," seem perhaps to favour this view, and to suggest a different speaker. The bridegroom is the palm tree rather than the bride; she modestly and humbly transfers the similitude to him. The palm tree resembles the king in its lofty stateliness and beauty. And certainly this view best lends itself to spiritual applications. The palm tree to the Christian represents the cross. We think of St. Peter"s words, "His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree". (1Pe_2:24) We remember the old traditional reading of Psa_96:10, "The Lord hath reigned from the tree." We recall his own words, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me". (Joh_12:32) The Lord reigned from the tree; above him was the title, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." He is the King of the true Israelites, the Israel of God. And the Cross is the throne of his triumph; it displays, as nothing else could do, the Divine glory of holiness and entire self-sacrifice and self-forgetting love, which are the kingly ornaments of the Saviour"s lofty dignity. The Saviour"s precious death has made the cross a thing most sacred, most awe-inspiring, most dear to Christian souls, most constraining in the power of its Divine attraction. It draws around itself all the elect of God, all who have ears to hear and hearts to feel the blessed love of Christ. All such say in their hearts, "I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof." The first words, "I said," seem, to remind us of many faithless promises, of many broken resolutions. It is easy to say, very hard to persevere in bearing the cross. How often we have promised, at our baptism, at our confirmation, in the Holy Communion, in the hour of private prayer and self-examination how often we have said, "I will go up"! But the ascent is steep and difficult; the palm tree is high, there are no branches to assist the climber; the fruit is at the very top, high out of our reach; there is need of effort, continued persevering effort effort sometimes very hard and painful to flesh and blood. But we must lift up our hearts, we must look upward. The Lord was lifted up, and his disciples must follow him; they know the way. (Joh_14:4) We must set him ever before us, and think of his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and Passion, when we are tempted to regard the cross as hard and painful, and to relax our efforts in the religious life. We must go up. God"s saints have gone before us. "They climbed the steep ascent of heaven Through peril, toil, and pain.

We must do the like; "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom" of God. And if we would persevere in well doing we must go up to the cross of the Lord Jesus; it is only there, in spiritual communion with the crucified Saviour, in his strength which strengthens all who trust in him, through a living and true faith in him, that the Christian can find strength to bear the burden of the cross. It is a heavy burden to flesh and blood, but the Lord makes it light to all who come to him in obedience to his gracious invitation. For he gives to his chosen power to become the sons of God; he strengthens them with all might by his Spirit in the inner man; he bids them east their burden upon him, (Psa_55:22) he bears it with them. But they must go up to the palm tree; they may have many times said they will do so, and perhaps many times have failed. They must go up with sustained effort. The Lord, indeed, draws us, but it is by the attraction of love and the motions of his Spirit, not by forcing our will. We must go up, yielding up our will to him, asking him to give us grace to pray aright that holy prayer, "Not my will, but thine be done." And we must take hold of the boughs thereof, clinging to them with the embrace of loving faith. It is not enough once to go up to the tree; the Lord himself has taught us our need of continual perseverance: "Abide in me, and I in you." We must take hold of him with the earnest prayer of Jacob, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." And we must learn of him who endured the cross for us to take up the cross ourselves, to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts, so that, like St. Paul, we may be crucified with Christ, and, dying unto the world, may ever live with him. We may well take to ourselves the words which tradition puts into the mouth of St. Andrew when he first saw the cross on which he was to suffer, "Hail, precious cross, that hast been consecrated by the body of my Lord! I come to thee; receive me into thy arms, take me from among men, and present me to my Master, that he who redeemed me on thee may receive me by thee." The cross goeth before the crown. We must go up to the tree, and that with pains and striving, before we can reach the fronds at the summit. They are the prize of victory. The great multitude that no man could number stood before the throne clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. That blessed vision may, indeed, be understood as a vision of the true Feast of Tabernacles in heavens but the palm has ever been regarded as the martyr"s prize; we must look upwards to it. "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". (Php_3:13, 14)

4. The bridegroom continues his praises. He repeats the comparison of the vine, and adds that the breath of the bride is fragrant as the smell of the choicest fruits, and the tones of her voice sweet as the best wine. Here the bride interrupts the king, adding the words, "that goeth down smoothly for my beloved." We mark the loving controversy; each seeks to put the other first. If the king compares the bride to a palm tree, she stops him with the answer that he is to her the stately tree; she win go up to the palm tree, she will take hold of its boughs. If he compares her voice to the flavour of the sweetest wine, she adds, interrupting him, that that wine is for her beloved, to please and refresh him with its sweetness; her joy is, to feel that she is wholly his, to delight in his love, to try always to please him. It is a sweet picture of the happiness of wedded love, when each seeks to please the other, when each puts the other first. Then Christian marriage is indeed a holy estate, a great help in the religious life, representing to the wedded pair the union that is between Christ and his Church, so that having in their own mutual relations a parable of that holy union, they may be drawn continually nearer to Christ, as they learn continually to love one another with a purer and deeper love, and in their daily self-denials for the loved one"s sake find how blessed is self-sacrifice for his sake who loved us and gave himself for us.

II THE BRIDE"S ANSWER.

1. The mutual love that binds them together. She repeats the assertion of Son_2:16 Son_6:3. As in Son_6:3, she puts first her own gift, the gift of her whole heart, to her beloved. She knows now, with a confident and happy knowledge, that her heart is his. Perhaps at first there had been some coyness, some hesitations, some doubts; now there is none. She has given her heart, and she knows it. She dwells on the happy truth; she rejoices in repeating it. Blessed is the Christian soul that can say the like, "I am my Beloved"s," "I am Christ"s." Blessed above all others are they who can say in sincerity that they have given him their whole heart; that they desire only him, his presence, his love; that their one highest hope is to please him better, to live nearer and nearer to him, and at length to see him face to face. Such, in the ancient times, was the hope of the Psalmist Asaph. "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forever". (Psa_73:25, Psa_73:26) And the bride is sure of the bridegroom"s love: "his desire is towards me." She is as sure that his heart is hers as that hers is his. She applies to him the Divine words of Gen_3:16. As Eve"s desire was to her husband, so now the king"s desire was toward his bride. The heavenly Bridegroom loved the Church; his desire is toward his people; their salvation was the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross. He said to his little flock, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer". (Luk_22:15) His desire is toward his bride, that she may be washed and cleansed, that he may in his own good time present her to himself a glorious Church, holy and without blemish. (Eph_5:25-27)

2. The bride"s invitation. The king had invited her to his royal city at the time of their espousals. "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse". (Son_4:8) She seems here to be inviting the king to visit in her company her old home, the scene of her labours in the vineyards. "Come, my beloved," she says, "let us go forth into the field." So the heavenly Bridegroom calls to himself the souls whom he so dearly loved: "Come unto me, and I will give you rest;" so the Christian, in answer to the Lord"s gracious invitation, responds, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." He bids us come to him, and as we come we pray him to come to us, for without him we can do nothing; we cannot come unless he draws us by himself coming to us. (Joh_6:44 Joh_12:32) We pray him, "Let us go forth into the field, let us get up early to the vineyards;" for we need his presence always; we cannot do the work which he has given us to do; we cannot work in his vineyard as he bids us without his help. Therefore we ask him to be with us always, according to his gracious promise, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even to the end"; (Mat_28:20) that we may have grace to get up early to the vineyards, not to stand all the day idle, not to wait to the eleventh hour, but to give the best of our life to God, to remember our Creator in the days of our youth, to do with our might whatsoever our hand findeth to do. (Ecc_9:10) The word here rendered "get up early" is several times figuratively used for "to be earnest or urgent." God calls us to work, to labour for his Name"s sake, out not to leave our first love, like the Church at Ephesus; (Rev_2:3, Rev_2:4) to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but all the time to ask him to come and help us, and to remember that it is he who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure; (Php_2:13) for without that inward work of his within oar souls we can do no acceptable work for him. But work we must, for he bids us; and it is in that work, wrought ever in faith and in dependence upon him, that the Christian soul keeps itself in the love of God. (Jud_1:21) So the bride says," There in the vineyard will I give thee my loves." It is in working for God that we prove our love for him. "Lovest thou me?" the Saviour said; then "feed my lambs, feed my sheep." "If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Then he will pray for us, sending the gracious Spirit, the Comforter, to strengthen and to help us; then, he promises, he will come himself. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you". (Joh_14:15-18) Then the blessed Spirit will help us to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit the fruit which is "love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance that like the bride in the song we may have "all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old," and may add, in her words, "which I have laid up for thee, O my Beloved." These fruits are treasures laid up in heaven, and we know that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day. (2Ti_1:12)

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 6. The fairness of love.

The commendations of the bride"s beauty, which occur in the early verses of this chapter, lead up to the exclamation so much in harmony with the whole spirit of the Canticles concerning the fairness, the pleasantness, the delightsomeness, of true love.

I THE BEAUTY AND GOOD SERVICE OF LOVE, AS A SENTIMENT IN THE HUMAN HEART AND AS A BOND IN HUMAN SOCIETY. As distinguished from mere carnal passion, that conjugal love which is pictured as subsisting between the king and his spouse is justly in this Song of Songs represented as of the purest and highest excellence. It is true that religion and morality put a restraint upon the natural impulses, and the Bible abounds with warnings against yielding to the temptations which are favoured by human nature and by sinful society. But if the way of virtue be a narrow way, it is not without flowers by its borders, both fair and fragrant. The path of self-government and self-denial is a path which has pleasures of its own. And one aim of this Book of Canticles, one justification for its place in canonical Scripture, appears to be its effective depicting of the pure joys of human affection. Where marriage is the result of personal preference and sincere attachment, and where it is entered upon under the guidance of sober reason and forethought, it may well be expected to yield delights. Toil, anxieties, mutual forbearance and self-sacrifice, the endurance in common of life"s cares and sorrows, so far from extinguishing love, may refine and hallow it. And maturity of character and spiritual discipline and strength will prove more than a compensation for the abandonment of the "primrose path" of pleasure, in which the unspiritual find their joys. The family and the home are the scene and the embodiment of wedded love. And they are the very basis of human society, the condition and mean s of true human progress, the earnest of a higher state of Christian civilization in the future.

II HUMAN LOVE IS THE EMBLEM OF THE DIVINE LOVE WHICH UNITES THE SOUL AND THE SAVIOUR, AND WHICH IS THE SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL AND HEAVENLY JOYS. The highest purpose of that affinity which binds heart to heart is to elicit emotions, and to lead to relations with which our highest welfare here and hereafter is associated. They who read this Book of Canticles without recognizing the divinely appointed connection in question miss not only a literary charm, but a spiritual truth and law. It is to be feared that in the view of some, human love, such as should exist between husband and wife, appears a profane and common, if not a foolish, thing. But God is not honoured by the disparagement of his own provisions and plans. If he has made love so important a factor in human life, he has done so, we may be sure, with a purpose worthy of himself, his wisdom, and grace. As earthly love is elevated and purified by the Divine discipline of this earthly existence, it comes to symbolize, with ever-growing force, the profound affection which subsists between Christ and his Church. And this significance is recognized in the language of St. Paul and St. John regarding the bride and spouse of the Saviour. With reference to the emotions which are cherished by Christ towards his chosen and beloved people, and by his people towards him to whom they are indebted for all they have and for all they hope for, how appropriate is the exclamation, "How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!" Divine love is the source of Divine joy. It is immortal love which is the earnest of "pleasures forevermore. T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Delights - For those various lovely features which, are in thee.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Your head upon you is like Carmel These are the tephillin [phylacteries] of the head, about which it is said (Deut. 28:10): “And all the peoples of the world will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they will fear you.” That is their strength and their fear, like a rock of the mountains, and the Carmel is the most prominent of the mountains.

and the braided locks of your head The braided hair of your Nazirites are as beautiful with commandments as braided purple [ropes].

and the braided locks of your head Heb. וְדַלַת רֹאשֵּׁךְ, because the braid is lifted up (מֻדְלֵת) on the highest part of the head.

the king is bound in the tresses The name of the Omnipresent is bound in the locks, as is stated (Num. 6:7): “The crown of his God is on his head.”

tresses Heb. רְהָטִים, courants in French; currents, windings [tresses]. This is what they call the fringes of the sashes, with which they tie the girdles. Another explanation of מֶלֶךְ אָסוּר בָּרְהָטִים: The Holy One, blessed be He, is bound with love to the commandments and to the swiftness with which you run before Him.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.