Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Song of Solomon 6:2
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
2 My beloved has gone down into the garden, To the beds of sweet herbs, To feed in the gardens And gather lilies. He is certainly, she means to say, there to be found where he delights most to tarry. He will have gone down - viz. from the palace ( Sol 6:11; cf. Kg1 20:43 and Est 7:7) \- into his garden, to the fragrant beds, there to feed in his garden and gather lilies (cf. Old Germ. "to collect rsen"); he is fond of gardens and flowers. Shulamith expresses this in her shepherd-dialect, as when Jesus says of His Father ( Joh 15:1), "He is the husbandman." Flowerbeds are the feeding place (vid., regarding לרעות under Sol 2:16) of her beloved. Solomon certainly took great delight in gardens and parks, Ecc 2:5. But this historical fact is here idealized; the natural flora which Solomon delighted in with intelligent interest presents itself as a figure of a higher Loveliness which was therein as it were typically manifest (cf. Rev 7:17, where the "Lamb," "feeding," and "fountains of water," are applied as anagogics, i.e., heavenward-pointing types). Otherwise it is not to be comprehended why it is lilies that are named. Even if it were supposed to be implied that lilies were Solomon's favourite flowers, we must assume that his taste was determined by something more than by form and colour. The words of Shulamith give us to understand that the inclination and the favourite resort of her friend corresponded to his nature, which is altogether thoughtfulness and depth of feeling (cf. under Psa 92:5, the reference to Dante: the beautiful women who gather flowers representing the paradisaical life); lilies, the emblems of unapproachable grandeur, purity inspiring reverence, high elevation above that which is common, bloom there wherever the lily-like one wanders, whom the lily of the valley calls her own. With the words: Song of Solomon (Canticles) 6:3
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