A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
A garden enclosed. Here she is distinct from the garden (Song of Solomon 5:1), yet identified with it (Song of Solomon 4:16), as being one with Him in His sufferings. Historically, the Paradise into which the soul of Jesus Christ entered at death; and the tomb of Joseph, in which His body was laid amidst "myrrh," etc. (Song of Solomon 4:6), situated in a nicely kept garden (cf. "gardener," John 20:15); "sealed" with a stone (Matthew 27:66); in which it resembles 'wells' in the East. It was in a garden of light Adam fell; in a garden of darkness, Gethsemane, and chiefly that of the tomb, the second Adam retrieved us. Spiritually, the garden is the Gospel kingdom of heaven. Here all is ripe: previously (Song of Solomon 2:13) it was "the tender grape." The garden is His, though he calls the plants her's (Song of Solomon 4:13), by his gift (Isaiah 61:3, end).
Spring ... fountain - Jesus Christ (John 4:10) sealed, while He was in the sealed tomb: it poured forth its full tide on Pentecost. Still He is a sealed fountain, until the Holy Spirit open it to one (1 Corinthians 12:3). The Church also is "a garden enclosed," (Psalms 4:3; Isaiah 5:1, etc.) Contrast Psalms 80:9-12. So "a spring" (Isaiah 27:3); 'sealed' (2 Timothy 2:19). As wives in the East are secluded from public gaze, so believers (Colossians 3:3). Contrast the oven streams which "pass away" (Job 6:15-18; 2 Peter 2:17).