Song of Solomon 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;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) The time of the singing—Heb., zamîr·—may mean pruning (so LXX. and Vulg.), but parallelism requires singing-time (a meaning which analogy will certainly allow us to give to the Hebrew word zamîr). Nor can the correctness of our version in inserting of birds be questioned, since from the context it is plainly “the untaught harmony of spring,” and not the voices of men intended. It is true there is no authority for this beyond the context, and the allusions to the singing of birds are besides very few in Scripture; but travellers say that different species of warbless (Turdidœ), especially the bulbul and the nightingale. abound in the wooded valleys, filling the air in early spring with the rich cadence of their notes (Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 160).

Turtle.—Heb., tôr (turtur), from its plaintive note. Three species are found in Palestine, but the one intended is doubtless our own turtle-dove (Turtur auritus). It is migratory, and its advent marks the return of spring (Jeremiah 8:7). “Search the glades and valleys even by sultry Jordan at the end of March, and not a turtle-dove is to be seen. Return in the second week of April, and clouds of doves are feeding on the clovers of the plain.” “The turtle, immediately on its arrival, pours forth from every garden grove and wooded hill its melancholy yet soothing ditty from early dawn till sunset” (Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 219).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:8-13 The church pleases herself with thoughts of further communion with Christ. None besides can speak to the heart. She sees him come. This may be applied to the prospect the Old Testament saints had of Christ's coming in the flesh. He comes as pleased with his own undertaking. He comes speedily. Even when Christ seems to forsake, it is but for a moment; he will soon return with everlasting loving-kindness. The saints of old saw him, appearing through the sacrifices and ceremonial institutions. We see him through a glass darkly, as he manifests himself through the lattices. Christ invites the new convert to arise from sloth and despondency, and to leave sin and worldly vanities, for union and communion with him. The winter may mean years passed in ignorance and sin, unfruitful and miserable, or storms and tempests that accompanied his conviction of guilt and danger. Even the unripe fruits of holiness are pleasant unto Him whose grace has produced them. All these encouraging tokens and evidences of Divine favour, are motives to the soul to follow Christ more fully. Arise then, and come away from the world and the flesh, come into fellowship with Christ. This blessed change is owing wholly to the approaches and influences of the Sun of righteousness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The time of the singing ... - i. e., The song of pairing birds. This is better than the rendering of the ancient versions, "the pruning time is come."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. flowers—tokens of anger past, and of grace come. "The summoned bride is welcome," say some fathers, "to weave from them garlands of beauty, wherewith she may adorn herself to meet the King." Historically, the flowers, &c., only give promise; the fruit is not ripe yet; suitable to the preaching of John the Baptist, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand"; not yet fully come.

the time of … singing—the rejoicing at the advent of Jesus Christ. Gregory Nyssenus refers the voice of the turtledove to John the Baptist. It with the olive branch announced to Noah that "the rain was over and gone" (Ge 8:11). So John the Baptist, spiritually. Its plaintive "voice" answers to his preaching of repentance (Jer 8:6, 7). Vulgate and Septuagint translate, "The time of pruning," namely, spring (Joh 15:2). The mention of the "turtle's" cooing better accords with our text. The turtledove is migratory (Jer 8:7), and "comes" early in May; emblem of love, and so of the Holy Ghost. Love, too, shall be the keynote of the "new song" hereafter (Isa 35:10; Re 1:5; 14:3; 19:6). In the individual believer now, joy and love are here set forth in their earlier manifestations (Mr 4:28).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The flowers appear on the earth: this and the following clauses are here alleged as evidences of the spring time, which in the mystical and principal sense seems to signify the day of grace, or the glad tidings of salvation proposed to sinners in the time of the law, by types, and shadows, and promises, but much more clearly and fully in the gospel, and all the discoveries and communications of God’s grace to mankind in holy ordinances, in the gifts, and graces, and comforts of the Holy Spirit, vouchsafed unto and appearing in believers, as buds and blossoms do in the spring time.

The time of the singing of birds; when birds sing most freely and sweetly, as they do in the spring. Or, as the ancient translator’s render it, of cutting or cropping, not trees, which agrees not with that season, but the flowers, last mentioned, for nosegays, or other uses.

The turtle; which changeth its place according to the season, as is observed. Jeremiah 8:7, and by all other writers, who affirm that it disappears in winter, and appears in the spring, as some other birds also do; but this seems particularly to be mentioned, because it doth not only give notice of the spring, but also doth aptly represent the Spirit of God, which even the Chaldee paraphrast understands by this turtle, which appeared in the shape of a dove, and which worketh a dove-like meekness, and chastity, and faithfulness in believers.

In our land; in Immanuel’s land, as Canaan is called, Isaiah 8:8, in the church.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The flowers appear on the earth,.... One of the first signs of the spring being come (t); and make the season delightful and pleasant; the sun returning with its warming influences, herbs and plants are quickened and spring up; fields and meadows, as well as gardens, are covered with a variety of beautiful flowers, which make walking abroad very delightful. By these "flowers" may be meant either the graces of the spirit in the saints, which, when a wintertime with them, seem to be dead, at least are hid; but, upon a return of the sun of righteousness, revive and are seen again: or the saints themselves, when in a flourishing condition, and in the exercise of grace; who may be compared to the flowers of the field for the production of them in the spring, which is a kind of re-creation of them, Psalm 104:30; and fitly expresses the renovation of the Holy Ghost, to which the revival of them is owing; and for the fragrancy of them, their persons and services being of a sweet savour through the grace and righteousness of Christ; and for their beauty and ornament to the fields in which they grow, as saints are through Christ in themselves, and to the churches and interest of Christ; and for the gaiety and cheerfulness in which the flowers appear in the spring season, and so a proper emblem of the joy and consolation of the saints; where grace revives, Christ returns, and they are favoured with communion with him. It may not be improper to observe, that this may represent the large conversions of souls to Christ, and the numerous appearance of so many beautiful flowers in the church of Christ in the first ages of Christianity, after a long winter of Jewish and Gentile darkness;

the time of the singing of birds is come; another sign of spring, and suits the Gospel dispensation, in which the churches of Christ, and the members of them, sing the praises of the Lord in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; and particularly young converts, those little birds that sing in warbling notes and tuneful lays the songs of electing, redeeming, calling, justifying, pardoning, and adopting grace, to the glory of God, and to their mutual comfort and edification. Some render it, "the time of the branch" (u), of the vine putting forth its branches; or "the time of cutting" (w), of pruning vines, of lopping trees, and cutting off unfruitful branches; as in the Gospel dispensation, when the Jewish branches were broken off, and the Gentiles were ingrafted in, and being pruned brought forth more fruit; and this agrees with the season of the year, the spring being the time of cutting and pruning vines (x); though this is by some objected to as unseasonable;

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; so one part of rural pleasures is described by the poet (y), not only by the singing of birds of various kinds, but particularly by the note of the turtle; which is a kind of dove that lies hid in the wintertime, or is gone, being a bird of passage, and appears and returns at the spring, when its voice is heard again (z); see Jeremiah 8:7; for its voice is never heard in winter, unless on a fine day (a); by which may be meant, not the voice of the law, as the Jewish writers (b), rather of the Gospel, the joyful sound, which for a while was heard only in the land of Judea, called by way of specialty "our land": but either of the voice of the Messiah himself (c), preaching the everlasting Gospel in the land of Israel when here on earth; or of John the Baptist his forerunner; and so Alshech interprets it of Elijah, who was to come before the Messiah, and refers to Malachi 4:5. It may design the voice of all the apostles of Christ, and first ministers of the Gospel (d); or of the Holy Ghost, as the Targum, who appeared as a dove at Christ's baptism; and whose voice in the hearts of his people, speaking peace and pardon, and witnessing their adoption, causes joy and gladness; or of the church itself, compared to a turtledove for its harmlessness, meekness, chastity, &c. whose voice in prayer and praise is heard, and is acceptable to Christ, Sol 2:14.

(t) "Ver praebet flores", Ovid. de Remed. Amor. l. 1. v. 188. "Omnia tum florent", ibid. Metamorph. l. 15. Fab. 9. So flowers are called , "the children of the spring", in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 13. c. 9. p. 608. "Vernus sequitur color, omnis in herbas turget humus", Claudian. de Rapt. Proserp. l. 2. v. 90. (u) "tempus palmitis", Gussetius, p. 231. (w) , Sept. "tempus putationis", V. L. Pagninus; so the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. (x) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 22. Hesiod. Opera & Dies, l. 2.((y) , Theocrit. Idyll. 7. (z) Plin. ut supra, l. 18. c. 28. (a) Myndius apud Athenaeum in Deipnosophist. l. 9. c. 11. p. 394. So Pliny, "hyeme mutis, vere vocalibus", l. 10. c. 35. Vid. l. 18. c. 28. (b) In Zohar in Gen. fol. 121. 3.((c) So Pesikta in Yalkut in loc. (d) Vid. Stockium, p. 1181.

Geneva Study Bible

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;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. the flowers appear on the earth] The outburst of spring flowers in Palestine is wonderful. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 139, says: “The hills and valleys … glow with what is peculiar to Palestine, a profusion of wild flowers, daisies, the white flower called the Star of Bethlehem, but especially with a blaze of scarlet flowers of all kinds, chiefly anemones, wild tulips and poppies. Of all the ordinary aspects of the country, this blaze of scarlet colour is perhaps the most peculiar.” Cp. also Dr Post, in Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible, vol. 11. p. 24.

the time of the singing of birds is come] The words of birds, as is indicated by the italics in the A.V., are not in the Hebrew. All it says is that ‘çth hazzâmîr has come. Now zâmîr may mean either ‘pruning’ or ‘singing,’ and most of the ancient versions, e.g. LXX, Vulg., Targ., have translated it pruning, though the word does not occur elsewhere in the O.T. with this meaning. But in favour of this translation we have the fact that the various agricultural operations of the year are in Heb. named by words of an exactly similar form, e.g. qâtsîr, the harvest of grain, &c. Further, in Jeremiah 51:33, we have the entirely analogous expression ‘çth haqqâtsîr = ‘the time of harvest.’ It cannot, therefore, be doubted that the translation ‘the time of pruning’ is thoroughly justified. Against it there is the fact that in Song of Solomon 2:13 the vines are in bloom, and they cannot be pruned when they are at that stage. But there is what is called summer pruning, one purpose of which is to help in the formation of the fruit or blossom-buds of fruit trees. This is done while the shoots are yet young and succulent so that they may in most cases be nipped off with the thumb-nail. The time for this would be just before the blooming, and both pruning and blooming would be processes appropriate to spring. For the meaning singing, there is the fact that zâmîr occurs a number of times with the meaning song (e.g. Isaiah 25:5; 2 Samuel 23:1, &c.), but always of human singing. There is no instance of its being used of the singing of birds.

the voice of the turtle is heard in our land] The turtle-dove is named here, not as a singing bird, but as a bird of passage which “observes the time of its coming” (Jeremiah 8:7); that is, it unfailingly appears in the spring, and by its voice announces its presence in the now leafy woods where it cannot readily be seen. Tristram says (Nat. Hist. p. 219), “Search the glades and valleys in March, and not a turtle-dove is to be seen. Return at the beginning of April, and clouds of doves are feeding on the clovers of the plain. They stock every tree and thicket. At every step they flutter up from the herbage in front, they perch on every tree and bush, they overspread the whole face of the land, and from every garden, grove, and wooded hill, pour forth their melancholy but soothing ditty unceasingly from early dawn to sunset.”

Song of Solomon 2:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

11 For, lo! the winter is past,

     The rain is over, is gone.

12 The flowers appear in the land;

     The time of song has come,

     And the voice of the turtle makes itself heard in our land.

13 The fig-tree spices her green figs,

     And the vines stand in bloom, they diffuse fragrance; -

     Rise up, my love, my fair one, and go forth!

The winter is called סתו, perhaps from a verb סתה (of the same root as סתר, סתם, without any example, since סוּת, Genesis 49:11, is certainly not derived from a verb סוּת), to conceal, to veil, as the time of being overcast with clouds, for in the East winter is the rainy season; (Arab.) shataā is also used in the sense of rain itself (vid., D. M. Zeitsch. xx. 618); and in the present day in Jerusalem, in the language of the people, no other name is used for rain but shataā (not metar). The word סתיו, which the Kerı̂ substitutes, only means that one must not read סתו, but סתו, with long a; in the same way עניו, humble, from ענה, to be bowed down, and שׂליו, a quail, from שׂלה, to be fat, are formed and written. Rain is here, however, especially mentioned: it is called gěshěm, from gāshǎm, to be thick, massy (cf. revīvīm, of density). With עבר, to pass by, there is interchanged חלף, which, like (Arab.) khalaf, means properly to press on, and then generally to move to another place, and thus to remove from the place hitherto occupied. In לו הלך, with the dat. ethicus, which throws back the action on the subject, the winter rain is thought of as a person who has passed by. נצּן, with the noun-ending n, is the same as ניסן, and signifies the flower, as the latter the flower-month, floral; in the use of the word, נצּן is related to נץ and נצּה, probably as little flower is to flower. In hǎzzāmīr the idea of the song of birds (Arab. gharad) appears, and this is not to be given up. The lxx, Aquila, Symm., Targ., Jerome, and the Venet. translate tempus putationis: the time of the pruning of vines, which indeed corresponds to the usus loq. (cf. זמר, to prune the vine, and מזמרה, a pruning-knife), and to similar names, such as אסיף ingathering of fruit, but supplies no reason for her being invited out into the open fields, and is on this account improbable, because the poet further on speaks for the first time of vines. זמר (זמּר) is an onomatopoeia, which for the most part denotes song and music; why should זמיר thus not be able to denote singing, like זמרה, - but not, at least not in this passage, the singing of men (Hengst.), for they are not silent in winter; but the singing of birds, which is truly a sign of the spring, and as a characteristic feature, is added

(Note: It is true that besides in this passage zāmǎr, of the singing of birds, is not demonstrable, the Arab. zamar is only used of the shrill cry of the ostrich, and particularly the female ostrich.)

to this lovely picture of spring? Thus there is also suitably added the mention of the turtle-dove, which is a bird of passage (vid., Jeremiah 8:7), and therefore a messenger of spring. נשׁמע is 3rd:pret.: it makes itself heard.

The description of spring is finished by a reference to the fig-tree and the vine, the standing attributes of a prosperous and peaceful homestead, 1 Kings 5:5; 2 Kings 18:31. פּג (from פּנג, and thus named, not from their hardness, but their delicacy) are the little fruits of the fig-tree which now, when the harvest-rains are over, and the spring commences with the equinox of Nisan, already begin to assume a red colour; the verb חנט does not mean "to grow into a bulb," as Bttch. imagines; it has only the two meanings, condire (condiri, post-bibl. syn. of בּשׁל) and rubescere. From its colour, wheat has the name חטּה equals חנטה; and here also the idea of colour has the preference, for becoming fragrant does not occur in spring-in the history of the cursing of the fig-tree at the time of the Passover, Mark (Mark 11:13) says, "for the time of figs was not yet." In fig-trees, by this time the green of the fruit-formation changes its colour, and the vines are סמדר, blossom, i.e., are in a state of bloom (lxx κυπρίζουσαι; cf. Sol 7:13, κυπρισμός) - it is a clause such as Exodus 9:31, and to which "they diffuse fragrance" (Sol 2:13) is parallel. This word סמדר is usually regarded as a compound word, consisting of סם, scent, and סמדר, brightness equals blossom (vid., Gesen. Thes.); it is undeniable that there are such compound formations, e.g., שׁלאנן, from שׁלה and שׁאן; חלּמישׁ, from (Arab.) ḥams, to be hard, and hals, to be dark-brown.

(Note: In like manner as (Arab.) karbsh, corrugare, is formed of karb, to string, and karsh, to wrinkle, combined; and another extension of karsh is kurnash, wrinkles, and mukarnash, wrinkled. "One day," said Wetstein to me, "I asked an Arab the origin of the word karnasa, to wrinkle, and he replied that it was derived from a sheep's stomach that had lain over night, i.e., the stomach of a slaughtered sheep that had lain over night, by which its smooth surface shrinks together and becomes wrinkled. In fact, we say of a wrinkled countenance that it is mathal alkarash albayt." With right Wetstein gathers from this curious fact how difficult it is to ascertain by purely etymological considerations the view which guided the Semites in this or that designation. Samdor is also a strange word; on the one side it is connected with sadr, of the veiling of the eyes, as the effect of terror; and on the other with samd, of stretching oneself straight out. E. Meier takes סמדר as the name of the vine-blossom, as changed from סמסר, bristling. Just as unlikely as that סמד is cogn. to חמד, Jesurun, p. 221.)

But the traditional reading סמדר (not סמדר) is unfavourable to this view; the middle ā accordingly, as in צלצל, presents itself as an ante-tone vowel (Ewald, 154a), and the stem-word appears as a quadril. which may be the expansion of סדּר, to range, put in order in the sense of placing asunder, unfolding. Symm. renders the word by οἰνάνθη, and the Talm. idiom shows that not only the green five-leaved blossoms of the vine were so named, but also the fruit-buds and the first shoots of the grapes. Here, as the words "they diffuse fragrance" (as at 7:14 of the mandrakes) show, the vine-blossom is meant which fills the vineyard with an incomparably delicate fragrance. At the close of the invitation to enjoy the spring, the call "Rise up," etc., with which it began, is repeated. The Chethı̂b לכי, if not an error in writing, justly set aside by the Kerı̂, is to be read לכי (cf. Syr. bechi, in thee, levotechi, to thee, but with occult i) - a North Palestinism for לך, like 2 Kings 4:2, where the Kerı̂ has substituted the usual form (vid., under Psalm 103 introd.) for this very dialectic form, which is there undoubtedly original.