2:1 I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys.
2:2 As the lily among thorns, so [is] my love among the daughters.
[1] {so is} How poor are the similes of the bride as compared with those of the Bridegroom. To Him she is a "lily among thorns; she can only say that He is "as the apple tree among the trees of the wood."
2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so [is] my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit [was] sweet to my taste.
2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love.
2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I [am] sick of love.
2:6 His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
2:7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.
2:8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
2:9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.
[2] {our wall} "Our wall." The bride had returned to her own home: the Bridegroom seeks her.
2:10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
2:11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone;
2:12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
2:13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [with] the tender grape give a [good] smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
2:14 O my dove, [that art] in the clefts of the rock, in the secret [places] of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance [is] comely.
[3] {dove} There is beautiful order here. First we have what the bride is as seen in Christ, "My dove." In herself most faulty; in Him "blameless and harmless" # Php 2:15 the very character of the dove. The bride's place of safety, "in the clefts of the rock"--hidden, so to speak, in the wounds of Christ. Thirdly, her privilege. "Stairs" speaks of access. It is not "secret places," as in A.V., but "the secret of the stairs"--the way and privilege of access to His presence
# Eph 2:18 Col 3:1 Heb 10:19-22 Fourthly, the order of approach: she is to come near before she speaks, "Let me see thy countenance," then "Let me hear thy voice." Lastly, now that she is near and has spoken, He speaks a tender word of admonition: "Take us the foxes," etc.
2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.
2:16 My beloved [is] mine, and I [am] his: he feedeth among the lilies.
2:17 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.
