Song of Solomon 2:14

“O my dove, etc.] An epithet sometimes used by loversf161, and is a new title Christ gives to his church, to express his affection for her and interest in her; and to draw her out of her retirement, to go along with him. The dove is a creature innocent and harmless, beautiful, cleanly, and chaste; sociable and fruitful, weak and timorous, of a mournful voice, and swift in flying; all which is suitable to the church and people of God: they are harmless and inoffensive in their lives and conversations; they are beautiful through the righteousness of Christ on them, and the grace of the Spirit in them; they are clean through the word Christ has spoken, and having their hearts purified by faith;…”

“The bride relates to the chorus a visit which the beloved had paid her some time previously in her native home. He on a fair spring morning solicits her company. The bride, immersed in rustic toils, refuses for the present, but confessing her love, bids him return at the cool of day. It is a spring-time of affection which is here described, still earlier than that of the former chapter, a day of pure first-love, in which, on either side, all royal state and circumstance is forgotten or concealed. Hence, perhaps, the annual recitation of the Song of Songs by the synagogue with each return of spring, at the Feast of Passover, and special interpretations of this passage by Hebrew doctors, as…”

“My dove - So the church is called, for her dove - like temper, and for her dove - like condition, because she is weak, and exposed to persecution, and therefore forced to hide herself in rocks. The stairs - In the holes of craggy and broken rocks, which resemble stairs. Let me see - Be not afraid to appear before me. Hear - Thy prayers and praises. For - Thy person and services are amiable in my sight. Song of Solomon (Canticles) 2:15”

“2:14 In the dramatic view, the couple is playing a game of hide-and-seek in which she is teasing him; he resorts to simply pleading for her to appear, for even playful separation from her is too frustrating for him. • The rocks are a metaphor for separation that the man wants to overcome to be with her.”

“my dove: Sol 5:2, Sol 6:9; Psa 68:13, Psa 74:19; Isa 60:8; Eze 7:16; Mat 3:16, Mat 10:16 that art: Exo 3:6, Exo 4:11-13; Ezr 9:5, Ezr 9:6; Job 9:16; Isa 6:5; Dan 9:7; Luk 8:47, Luk 8:48 clefts: Exo 33:22, Exo 33:23; Isa 2:21; Jer 49:16; Oba 1:3 let me hear: Sol 8:13; Psa 50:14, Psa 50:15; Pro 15:8; Heb 4:16, Heb 10:22 for sweet: Psa 22:3, Psa 50:23; Isa 51:3; Rev 4:8-10, Rev 5:8, Rev 7:9, Rev 7:10 thy countenance: Sol 1:5, Sol 1:8, Sol 6:10; Psa 45:11, Psa 110:3; Eph 5:27; Col 1:22; Pe1 3:4; Jde 1:24 Song of Solomon (Canticles) 2:15”

“Solomon further relates how he drew her to himself out of her retirement: My dove in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding-place of the cliff; Let me see thy countenance, Let me hear thy voice! For thy voice is sweet and thy countenance comely. "Dove" (for which Castellio, columbula, like vulticulum, voculam) is a name of endearment which Shulamith shares with the church of God, Psa 74:19; cf. Psa 56:1; Hos 7:11. The wood-pigeon builds its nest in the clefts of the rocks and other steep rocky places, Jer 48:28. (Note: Wetstein's Reisebericht, p. 182: "If the Syrian wood-pigeon does not find a pigeon-tower, περιστερεῶνα, it builds its nest in the hollows of rocky precipices, or in the walls…”