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.
Day break ... shadows flee away. Night is the image of the present world (Romans 12:12). 'Behold men as if dwelling in, a subterranean cavern' (Plato, 'Republic,' 7: 1).
Until - i:e., Before that, etc. Break - rather, breathe: referring to the refreshing breeze of dawn in the East; or to the air of life, which distinguishes morning from the death-like stillness of night. Maurer takes this verse of the approach of night, when the breeze arises after the heat of day (cf. margin, Genesis 3:8, with Genesis 18:1), and the "shadows" are lost in night (Psalms 102:11): thus our life will be the day; death, the night (John 9:4). So Sanctus. It was at night the marriage feast took place (Genesis 29:23; Matthew 25:3; Matthew 25:6). The English version better accords with Song of Solomon 3:1. 'By night' (Romans 13:12).
Turn - to me.
Bether - Mountains of Bithron, separated from the rest of Israel by Jordan, not far from Bethabara, where John baptized and Jesus was first manifested. Rather, as margin, of divisions, and Septuagint, mountains intersected with deep valleys hard to pass over, separating the bride and Jesus Christ. In Song of Solomon 8:14 the mountains are of spices, on which the roe feeds, not of separation; for at His first coming He had to overpass the gulf made by sin between Him and us (Zechariah 4:6-7); in His second, He will only have to come down from the fragrant hills above, to take home his prepared bride. Historically, in the ministry of John the Baptist, Christ's call to the bride was not, as at a later period (Song of Solomon 4:8), "Come with me," but "come away" - namely, to meet me (Song of Solomon 2:2; Song of Solomon 2:10; Song of Solomon 2:13); Sitting in darkness (Matthew 4:16), she 'waited,' and 'looked' eagerly for Him, the 'great light' (Luke 1:79): at His rising, the "shadows" of the law (Colossians 2:16-17) were to "flee away." So we wait for the second coming, when means of grace, so precious now, shall be superseded by the Sun of righteousness (1 Corinthians 13:10; 1 Corinthians 13:12). The Word is our light until then (2 Peter 1:19).