Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? - literature, conjoined, or conjoining herself upon her Beloved, as the kindred Arabic to the Hebrew, mithrapequeth, means. Words of the daughters of Jerusalem, i:e., the churches of Judea; referring to the period when Paul returned from Arabia ("the wilderness"), where he had gone after conversion (Galatians 1:15-24) (Moody Stuart). The gender in Hebrew, "Who is this?" is feminine. The ulterior reference seems to me to be rather to restored Israel, who shall come up from 'the wilderness of the peoples,' leaning upon her beloved Lord, wherein she has so long sojourned. The daughters of Jerusalem (the converted Gentiles) ask the question, for they at first are slow to believe the restoration of Israel as a nation to God's favour. But afterward they do (cf. Isaiah 66:20).
I raised thee ... she ... bare thee - (Acts 26:14-16.) The first words of Jesus Christ to the bride since her going to the garden of nuts (Song of Solomon 6:9-10); so His appearance to Paul is the only one since His ascension: Song of Solomon 8:13 is not an address of Him as visible: her reply implies He is not visible (1 Corinthians 15:8) (Moody Stuart). But the Hebrew masculine pronoun suffixes show that "thee" refers to Christ, and that therefore it is the bride who is speaking of Him, not He of her. Spiritually, the literal and the spiritual Israel was found in the moral wilderness (Hosea 13:5); but now she is "coming up from" it (Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 2:6), especially in the last stage of her journey, her conscious weakness casting itself the more wholly on Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 21:9). "Raised" (Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:7). But as the words are the brides as to Christ, "I raised" must mean, I, by my sin under the apple tree in Eden, and consequent misery, roused thy compassion, so that thou didst become incarnate for my sake.
Israel here speaks as representative of the whole of redeemed humanity. The apple tree symbolized love. Israel restored here reminds Christ of her having formerly eat under Him, "the apple tree" of love, and having eaten of His fruit "with great delight" (Song of Solomon 2:3). "Thy mother" that "brought thee forth" is the woman, the Church, of whom Christ is the promised. "Seed." (Genesis 3:15; Revelation 12:1-2). "There" is twice repeated, to mark emphatically the immediate connection between the scene of man's sin and the bringing forth from the love of God the remedy - i:e., the incarnation of Christ in the Virgin's womb (Micah 5:3, note). The Old Testament Church travailed in anxious waiting for Christ (Micah 4:9-10). Found ruined under the forbidden tree, restored under the shadow of Jesus Christ crucified, "the green tree" (Luke 23:31), fruit - "bearing" by the cross (Isaiah 53:11). Born again by the Holy Spirit "there" (Ezekiel 16:3-6). In this verse her dependence, in the similar verse, Song of Solomon 3:6, etc., His omnipotence to support her, are brought out. The reference back to the first part implies her restoration to her former union with the Bridegroom, riding in His palanquin, as of old in the wilderness.