Notes
Song of Solomon 5:6. ‘My soul failed when He spate.’
‘My soul failed.’ נַפְשִׁי יָצְאָה naphshi yatseah, literally, ‘went forth.’ Failed, or fainted; breath forsook me; my soul almost went out of me. ZÖCKLER, EWALD, DELIZTSCH. Sunk. BURROUGHS. I swooned away, and was like a dead body (Genesis 35:18). FRY. I was not in my senses. DE WETTE, NOYES, SANCTIUS. My soul melted with anguish. ROWE. With sweet effusion of love. FROMONDI. Left me and flew away to my Bridegroom. DEL RIO. Was in great terror. COCCEIUS, Was in suspense. THRODORET. There remained no more spirit in her. DAVIDSON. VULGATE: My soul was melted. LUTHER: Went out. MARTIN: Fainted. DIODATI: I was out of myself. COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: My heart could not refrain. TIGURINE: My mind was disturbed. ‘When be spake.’ בְּדַבְּרוֹ bedhabbero, ‘at his speaking;’ from דִּבֵּר dibber, to speak. So GESENIUS. When he spoke. EWALD, DELITZSCH. While he yet spoke. WEISS, MERCER, LE CLERC, &c. When he was speaking, i.e., through the window. ZOCKLER. Had failed as he spoke; a supplementary remark. DOPKE. SEPTUAGINT: At his word. VULGATE: When he spoke. SYMMACHUS: While be spoke. WICKLIFF: As he spake COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: Now like as aforetime when he spake. LUTHER: After his word. DUTCH: On account of his word. MARTIN: From having heard him speak. RASHI: When he spoke this word. JUNIUS: On account of the word with which he addressed me. Assembly’s Annotations: My neglect of his speech troubled me when he was gone. BRIGHTMAN, AINSWORTH. BOOTHROYD: On remembering his words. BURROUGHS: In consequence of what he had said. SCOTT: Either remembering his tender and affectionate apeal or hearing a reproving word as he withdrew. NOYES and DE WETTE: I was not in my senses while he spoke—acted insanely in not admitting my beloved at his request. EWALD proposes to read בְּדָבְרוֹ ‘at his going away. HITZIG views the word as equivalent to אַחֲרָיו ‘after him.’ UMBREIT: ‘In order to follow him; from דִּבֵּר to follow. Some propose בִּדְבָרוֹ ‘on his account.’
THE DISAPPOINTMENT
I opened to my beloved;
But my beloved had withdrawn himself,
And was gone.
My soul failed when he spake.
I sought him;
But I could not find him.
I called him;
But he gave me no answer.
Shulamite’s delay has disappointment for its fruit. Christ’s call not to be trifled with. Duty may be attempted too late to be immediately successful. God forgives His sinning people, though He may see fit to chasten them. Indulgence of the flesh, even for a short time, may bear bitter fruit. David’s short sin produced long sorrow. Falls, though not fatal, may bring broken bones. Samson, awaking from his sleep in Delilah’s lap, ‘wist not that his strength was departed from him’ Observe, in regard to
Divine Withdrawings,
1. These withdrawings real. A fact stated. ‘My beloved had withdrawn himself.’ Such a thing as God hiding His face.
2. These withdrawings such as to be observed and known. The Bride bears testimony to the fact. She knew it. Believers to know their case.
3. Well for believers and others to know when the Lord withdraws Himself. The saddest case for a man when God withdraws from him, and he either does not know it or pays no attention to it. Israel’s misery that ‘grey hairs were here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not’ (Hosea 7:9). An ill sign for men when God’s anger ‘sets them on fire round about, and they know it not; when it burns them, and they lay it not to heart’ (Isaiah 42:25).
4. The withdrawings of Christ, in the case of a believer, the result of love. The greatest sign of wrath when men are allowed to sleep and sin on. ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.’
5. These withdrawings in wisdom, as well as in love. Wise as well as gracious reasons for them.
(1) To teach the sin of neglecting divine calls and invitations. Such sin to be seen and lamented (Jeremiah 2:19; Hosea 5:15).
(2) To make His presence more prized. The value of a blessing best known when it has been withdrawn. The misery of Christ’s absence to be sometimes learned by experience. Lamented absence better than slighted presence.
(3) To prove the believer’s love. Love unable to endure absence.
(4) To render more watchful and careful in the future.
6. Divine withdrawings the believer’s greatest distress. My soul failed (or fainted, as Genesis 42:28) when He spake (or, at His speaking—at the remembrance of what He had said). So with Peter (Matthew 26:75). The Bride’s felt calamity indicated by a double expression: ‘Had withdrawn himself, and was gone.’ The sweeter the past enjoyment of Christ, the greater the pain of His present withdrawal.
7. In the case of a believer, the joy of Christ’s presence withdrawn, but not His love. David mourned the loss of the joy of God’s salvation, but not of the salvation itself (Psalms 51:10).
Other lessons from the passage—
1. The remembrance of a Saviour’s slighted calls, one day the bitterest ingredient in the sinner’s cup. ‘My soul failed when he spake.’ Well when the remembrance is here, and not hereafter. An awful word to the rich man in hell: ‘Son, remember’ (Luke 16:25). One element of a true repentance, in the case of hearers of the Gospel, is the remembrance of a slighted Christ. The remembrance of past guilt an aggravation of present trouble.
2. Christ still loved by the believer in the midst of His withdrawing. ‘My beloved,’ &c. True love made more ardent by the withdrawing of its object. One of the lessons of the Song. Realized in the disciples after the Saviour’s resurrection. The proof of a believer that he loves even an absent Christ.
3. Better to follow Christ in sorrow, than to live at case in sin.
4. The more the soul has tasted of Christ’s love, the more deeply it repents its coldness.
5. Means to be diligently employed to recover a missing Christ. ‘I called,’ &c.
6. The prayer of a penitent believer not always immediately answered. ‘He gave me no answer.’
7. A withdrawn Christ not immediately found. ‘I sought Him, but I found Him not.’ The Saviour’s threatening to the Jews: ‘Ye shall seek me but ye shall not find me.’
8. Sin often visited with a corresponding chastisement. The Bridegroom had called, and the Bride had not answered. Now she calls to him, but receives no answer. Observe in regard to
Answers to Prayer.
1. Answers to prayer, and the contrary, to be carefully noted and recorded.
2. Prayers not immediately answered not therefore rejected. Efforts not immediately successful not therefore in vain. The promise of finding made not to search begun, but persevered in. Believers’ prayers often only apparently rejected. Never really unanswered without a greater benefit being bestowed. Moses not permitted to enter Canaan, but taken direct to a better land. Paul’s thorn in the flesh not removed, but more of Christ’s grace imparted to him. Direct answers to prayer often withheld for the best and wisest reasons (Job 30:20; Psalms 22:2; Lamentations 3:8; Lamentations 3:44). Prayer often answered by terrible things in righteousness (Psalms 65:5).
3. Strength and grace given a believer still to pray even when no answer is received. Such grace often an equivalent for a direct answer. The greatest praise bestowed by Christ in the Gospels on one who still prayed earnestly after repeated repulses (Matthew 15:21-28).