The bride’s answer: “As the ‘tappuach’ with its fragrant fruit excels the barren trees of the wild wood, so my beloved his associates and friends etc.” תפוח tappûach may in early Hebrew have been a generic name for apple, quince, citron, orange etc.
His banner - As the standard is the rallying-point and guide of the individual soldier, so the bride, transplanted from a lowly station to new scenes of unaccustomed splendor, finds support and safety in the known attachment of her beloved. His “love” is her “banner.” The thought is similar to that expressed in the name “Jehovah-nissi” (see the Exodus 17:15 note).
Flagons - More probably cakes of raisins or dried grapes (2 Samuel 6:19 note; 1 Chronicles 16:3; Hosea 3:1). For an instance of the reviving power of dried fruit, see 1 Samuel 30:12.
Render as a wish or prayer: “O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand did embrace me!” Let him draw me to him with entire affection. Compare Deuteronomy 33:27; Proverbs 4:8.
Render: “I adjure you ... by the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awaken love until it please.” The King James Version, “my love,” is misleading. The affection or passion in itself, not its object, is here meant. This adjuration, three times significantly introduced as a concluding formula (marginal references), expresses one of the main thoughts of the poem; namely, that genuine love is a shy and gentle affection which dreads intrusion and scrutiny; hence the allusion to the gazelles and hinds, shy and timid creatures.
The complementary thought is that of Song of Solomon 8:6-7, where love is again described, and by the bride, as a fiery principle.