Notes
Song of Solomon 2:15: Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. שֻׁעָלִים (shualim) foxes. So the old translators. Sometimes also used for jackals, as Judges 15:4; Psalms 63:11. GESENIUS. Probably both these dangerous animals; the word being a general name for animals of the fox and jackal species. EWALD. A term including jackals. FAUSSET. Jackals probably meant wherever the word occurs in the Old Testament. Dr. SMITH. ZÖCKLER, however, inclines to foxes, as jackals are always called איים or תן. But, as Ewald observes, these rather poetically so called. BOCHART: jackals. HARMER: Jackals gregarious, but not foxes; distinguished from the latter as ‘little foxes.’ HASSELQUIST calls the jackal the ‘little Eastern fox.’ Jackals roam in troops about the villages at night. Very destructive in Judæa. BOOTHROYD. COBBIN: ‘Eastern foxes very unlike ours: small delicate creatures; and while seemingly gentle and harmless, creep quietly into any chink left in the fence of a vineyard, and nibble at the young shoots which are thus injured or destroyed.’ ‘Little foxes.’ ZÖCKLER: Young ones. MERCER: Little; as more hurtful to the vineyard, and more bold in doing damage. SANCTIUS: As more easily taken than when full grown. DEL RIO: Still few and feeble in spring, the time of germinating: the double expression used for a single one; ‘the foxes, I say, while still little.’ EWALD: In the early part of the year a prudent farmer will expel the foxes, especially the young ones.
‘Take us,’ &c.; catch us foxes, &c. A little vintage song, or a fragment of one, sung by the Bride. HERDER, ZOCKLER. Sung while she hastens to her Beloved; the song bearing a delicate allusion to their love-relations. DELITZSCH. An intimation that she was not disinclined to his taking part with her in the care of her vineyard. ZÖCKLER. Spoken by the Bride. GOOD, BURROUGHS, NOYES, THRUPP. Words borrowed from a popular song, but receiving a new meaning here from their connection. GREEN. The beloved is conceived by the Bride as commanding the servants and bystanders. EWALD. ‘Let thy servants catch,’ &c. COBBIN. Addressed by Solomon to his companions. MERCER, BOTHROYD. Sending them on their assigned employ. FRY. Spoken by the virgins to the friends of the Bridegroom. WILLIAMS. By the Bridegroom to Shulamite, directing her to look well to her vineyard. WORDSWORTH. A summons to the chase. TAYLOR, WITHINGTON. Bridegroom’s words to his servants reported by the Bride as heard in her sleep. DEL RIO. Spoken to Shulamite by her brothers. GINSBURG. Uncertain whether spoken by Christ, or the Church, or both: more probably by Christ, and chiefly addressed to the ministers of the Church, directing them to discover and refute the errors of false teachers and heretics; and to judge, censure, and cast them out of the Church, or to avoid them if not of it. AINSWORTH, DURHAM, GILL.
SHULAMITE’S REPLY TO HER BELOVED
Take us the foxes,
The little foxes,
That spoil the vines;
For our vines have tender grapes.
My beloved is mine,
And I am his;
He feedeth among the lilies.
Until the day break
And the shadows flee away;
Turn my Beloved,
And be thou like a roe,
Or a young hart,
Upon the mountains of Bether.
Shulamite readily responds to her Beloved. Complies with His request to let Him hear her voice. Her song, a ‘song of loves’ (Psalms 45 title). Expresses her desire and joy. Believers, encouraged and invited by Jesus, lift up their voice in prayer and song to the praise and pleasure of their Beloved. The privilege of ‘the ransomed of the Lord’ to return to Zion with songs. ‘The inhabitant of the rock’ sings; though lonely, yet secure and happy. Believers enabled, through faith and love, to sing the Lord’s song even in a strange land (Psalms 137:4). Shulamite’s song a mirror of the believer’s experience. Expresses—
I. CONCERN. ‘Take us the foxes (or jackals), the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes’ (or, ‘are in bloom’). Expresses her concern that nothing may exist to cool their love, or mar the happiness of the anticipated union. Speaks of herself as, in her bridal character, a vineyard, the property as much of her Beloved as her own. The vines of that vineyard, the happy intercourse of the connubial state. These, as in Spring, only then in bloom; the marriage not yet consummated, and the intercourse being only that of parties betrothed. The married state, however, anticipated, when for a time the vines would still only ‘have tender grapes,’ or be in flower. Natural concern in the Bride that nothing may disturb or mar the felicities of their married life. Wishes every hurtful and disturbing element to be detected and removed at the very beginning. Even ‘the little foxes’ to be taken and destroyed. Greater danger from infirmities of temper, little jealousies, coolnesses, or estrangements, at the earlier period of their wedded intercourse than even afterwards. The thought of the possible existence of such things painful to the loving Shulamite. To remove the causes and guard against the occasions of such disturbance, the joint care of both parties, while especially lying upon the husband. ‘Take us the foxes.’ Observe—
1. Care to be taken to preserve unhurt the union and communion between believers and Christ. The peace as well as fruitfulness of believers easily marred and injured. Grace in the soul, and Christ’s presence in the Church, a tender and delicate thing. The Spirit easily grieved. Many foxes about the vineyard, both great and small. Injury to the Church as a whole, and to believers individually, from various causes. These apparent in the earliest period of the Church. Exhibited in the acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Revelation. Appeared both in the form of false doctrines and foul practices. Believers, and the Church in general, warned against them. Care, vigilance, and decision necessary to guard against their entrance and effects.
2. Errors in doctrine and sins in life to be especially guarded against in the Spring-time of grace, and in the revivals of the Church. Spiritual pride, uncharitableness, vain-glory, strife, error, exclusiveness, to be then especially watched against. To be crushed in their first appearances and small beginnings. ‘Take us the little foxes.’ More dangerous and more damaging then, as being more likely to be overlooked, and more easily admitted. Young foxes more injurious to the vines in Spring than the older ones. What might be regarded as small sins, and scarcely observable to others, often the most hurtful to the divine life, and the spiritual health of a Church. ‘I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly,’ &c. (Revelation 2:4-5).
3. Sins and errors in the Church an injury to Christ as well as to the Church itself, and to individual believers. ‘Take us the foxes; our vines have tender grapes.’ The purity, happiness, and fruitfulness of the Church, both collectively and individually, the common interest of Christ and His people. The Church Christ’s body. His chosen rest and abode. His walk among the seven golden candlesticks. Injury to them an injury to Him.
4. Christ and His Spirit’s agency necessary to the preservation of the Church’s purity and the believer’s peace. ‘Take us (or ‘for us’) the foxes.’ The Bride unable to do this herself. Believers ‘kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation’ (1 Peter 1:5). Christ alone able to keep His people from falling, and to preserve them blameless. ‘A vineyard of red wine: I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day’ (Isaiah 27:2-3). Without me ye can do nothing. My grace is sufficient for thee. The Church’s efforts made effectual by the Spirit’s agency. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Zechariah 4:6). Little speed in soul-matters without Christ’s hand in the work.
5. The believer’s duty and interest prayerfully to put the preservation of his own soul, and of the Church at large, into Christ’s hands. ‘Take us the foxes’—the Bride’s earnest prayer to the Bridegroom. Paul’s conduct in regard to the thorn in the flesh: ‘For this I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me’ (2 Corinthians 12:8). Arise, plead thine own cause. What Christ can do, and has promised to do, He will do at His people’s earnest prayer (Ezekiel 36:37; Isaiah 45:11; Matthew 9:38.) Prayer the mightiest weapon put by her Lord into the Church’s hand, for the preservation of her purity and the conquest of her foes. Believers’ duty both to work and pray. ‘We will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word’ (Acts 6:4). The Church’s greatest triumphs won upon her knees.
II. JOY. ‘My beloved is mine and I am His.’ Shulamite expresses her joy in the possession of her Beloved, and in the entire surrender of herself to him as his own. This joy enhanced by the consideration of what he is and does—the excellence of his character, the happiness he imparts to his own, and the pleasure he takes in their society. ‘He feedeth among the lilies.’ The Beloved compared to a noble and beautiful gazelle that pastures only in the flowery meads. Only purest joys the Saviour’s choice. Only the pure His companions and friends. Purest enjoyments attend His presence. Lilies spring and bloom at His steps. Hence the believer’s joy and thankfulness. Justly congratulates himself on his untold treasure. ‘To you that believe He is precious.’ ‘The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places: I have a goodly heritage: the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup.’ ‘My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’ ‘I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be very joyful in my God.’
‘The opening heavens around me shine,
With beams of sacred bliss,
When Jesus tells me He is mine,
And whispers I am His.’
Observe—
1. A real, complete, and lasting propriety in each other on the part of Christ and believers. Each, with all that he is and has, the property of the other. The humblest and poorest believer equally with the strongest and richest, the sharer of Christ and all that is His—His life, merits, death, resurrection, glory, power, kingdom, throne (Romans 8:17; Revelation 3:21). The believer entirely Christ’s—his affections, talents, powers, possessions, influence. The name of King Jesus stamped on all he has and is. ‘Holiness to the Lord’ engraven on the furniture of his house and the tools of his workshop.
2. The believer’s happiness that Christ is his and he is Christ’s. Christ such as to guarantee this happiness. ‘He feedeth among the lilies.’ His presence makes a Paradise to angels, still more to His redeemed. ‘Where thou art is heaven.’ Infinitely blessed Himself, He is able to make all blessed who are the object of His love. The special blessedness of the glorified, that the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, that the Lamb stands on Mount Zion in the midst of the redeemed, and that He appears even in heaven as a Lamb that ‘had been slain’ (Revelation 5:6; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 14:1).
3. The proper character of believers to be lily-like. ‘He feedeth among the lilies.’ Lilies the emblems of sweetness and purity. Descriptive of those among which the Holy and Fair One delights to dwell. The spotless and lovely One can only feed among lilies. He who is sweetness and beauty itself must have lilies for His companions and joy. This fact the guardian of the believer’s life and the security of his peace. To enjoy Christ and His fellowship we must be lilies. Christ only able to live in a pure heart (Matthew 5:8; Titus 2:14; 1 John 3:3).
4. Christ to be found among His people. ‘He feedeth among the lilies.’ Is to be found among such (ch. Song of Solomon 6:2). ‘Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’ ‘He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks’ (Matthew 18:20; Revelation 2:1). Christ still to be sought and found in the temple—His own body, the Church. Found sitting, not in the midst of proud Pharisees and captious Scribes, but among His humble disciples, and the ‘publicans and sinners’ that draw near to hear Him (Luke 15:1; Isaiah 66:1-2; Isaiah 57:15; Acts 7:48).
III. DESIRE. ‘Till the day-dawn (or breathe), and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved,’ &c. Shulamite’s desire, probably, for the day of the anticipated nuptials, and her Bridegroom’s frequent visits in the meantime. The day longed for that shall make her legally and publicly his own, and shall put her in possession of the happiness and privilege of his married wife. The day of the Lord’s second appearing that of the public nuptials of His Church. The espousals or betrothing, here; the marriage, hereafter (2 Corinthians 2:2; Revelation 19:7). The Bride not complete till the Bridegroom comes to be glorified in His saints and to make them all like Himself (2 Thessalonians 1:10; Philippians 3:20-21). That day the object of the believer’s longing. The blessed hope (Titus 2:13). The day looked for and hasted to (2 Peter 3:12). The speedy arrival of that day the last promise of the Bridegroom to His Church, and the last prayer of the Bride to her Beloved (Revelation 22:20). That day the termination of the Church’s night. With the Bridegroom’s advent the day dawns and the day star appears. Christ Himself the bright and morning star (Revelation 22:16; 2 Peter 1:19; Romans 13:12; Romans 8:18-23). His first advent the termination of the night of the legal dispensation; His second that of the present one (Luke 1:78). Meantime He visits and revives His people. ‘I will not leave you comfortless (orphans); I will come unto you’. Such visits their comfort and joy in the night of their pilgrimage (Psalms 17:3; Psalms 42:8; Job 35:10). Christ, in His love, like a roe, or a young hart bounding over the mountains of Bether (or of cliffs intersected with deep fissures and ravines), when coming in humiliation and weakness; no less so when coming in glory and power. Intervening events and epochs to transpire previous to His second as well as to His first advent. Perhaps the last of these mountains of Bether already reached, or soon to be so. The Lord hasten it in His time!