Song of Solomon 1:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I have compared thee—to a company of horses— This, says the author of the New Translation, is the speech of the bridegroom, who, meeting the bride and her virgin companions, says, I have compared thee, O my love, to my well-trained steed in Pharaoh's chariots. We ought not to think the comparison coarse or vulgar, if we consider what beautiful and delicate creatures the eastern horses are, and how highly they are valued; and, withal, the very strong figurative expressions which the oriental writers are continually using. Theocritus, as is observed by Grotius and others, has made use of the very same image to express the beauty of Helen; Idyll. ver. 29. Though here, indeed, the bridegroom does not seem to have in view to compliment the bride on her beauty, so much as to celebrate her conjugal fidelity. She is anxiously concerned for his absence, and fondly goes in search of him. Upon seeing her thus employed, he is charmed with her affection for him, and, as the words may be paraphrased, commends her for drawing well in the marriage yoke. The chariots of Pharaoh are mentioned, probably, because Egypt was at that time most celebrated for its horses and chariots; and the phrase may signify in general a chariot of the most elegant and excellent sort.