Song of Solomon 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Wall.—As an instance of the fertility of allegorical interpretation, the variety of applications of this passage may be quoted. The wall = (1) the wall between us and Christ, i.e., our mortal condition; (2) “the middle wall of partition,” the law; (3) the iniquities separating man from God, so that He does not hear or His voice cannot reach us; (4) the creatures behind whom God Himself stands speaking through them, and “si fas dicere, (5) the flesh of Christ itself spread over His Divinity, through which it sounds sweetly and alters its voice” (Bossuet).

Looketh forth.—Rather, looking through, as in next clause, where the same Hebrew particle occurs. and may = either out or in, as context requires. Here plainly in at.

Shewing himself.—Marg., flourishing. The primitive idea seems to be “to look bright.” Hence the Hiphil conjugation = “to make to look bright;” here “making his eyes glance or twinkle as he peers in through the lattice.”

Benson Commentary

Song of Solomon 2:9. My beloved is like a roe — In swiftness. He is coming to me with all speed, and will not tarry a moment beyond the proper season. He standeth behind our wall — And while he doth, for wise reasons, forbear to come, he is not far from us. Both this and the following phrases may denote the obscure manner of Christ’s manifesting himself to his people, under the law, in comparison of his discoveries in the gospel. He looketh forth at the window — This phrase, and that, through the lattice, intimate that the church does indeed see Christ, but as through a glass, darkly, as it is said even of gospel revelations, (1 Corinthians 13:12,) which was much more true of legal administrations.

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

Like a roe - Gazelle (compare Proverbs 5:19 note). The points of comparison here are beauty of form, grace, and speed of movement. In 2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8, princes are compared to "gazelles."

Wall - The clay-built wall of the house or vineyard of the bride's family, different from the strong wall of a city or fortress Sol 5:7; Sol 8:9-10.

Looketh forth at the windows - The meaning evidently is, that he is looking in at, or through, the window from the outside. Compare Sol 5:4 note.

Shewing himself - Or, peering. Some, taking the marginal rendering, imagine that the radiant face of the beloved is thus compared to some beautiful flower entangled in the lattice-work which protects the opening of the window, from where he gazes down upon the bride.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. he standeth—after having bounded over the intervening space like a roe. He often stands near when our unbelief hides Him from us (Ge 28:16; Re 3:14-20). His usual way; long promised and expected; sudden at last: so, in visiting the second temple (Mal 3:1); so at Pentecost (Ac 2:1, 2); so in visiting an individual soul, Zaccheus (Lu 19:5, 6; Joh 3:8); and so, at the second coming (Mt 24:48, 50; 2Pe 3:4, 10). So it shall be at His second coming (1Th 5:2, 3).

wall—over the cope of which He is first seen; next, He looks through (not forth; for He is outside) at the windows, glancing suddenly and stealthily (not as English Version, "showing Himself") through the lattice. The prophecies, types, &c., were lattice glimpses of Him to the Old Testament Church, in spite of the wall of separation which sin had raised (Joh 8:56); clearer glimpses were given by John Baptist, but not unclouded (Joh 1:26). The legal wall of partition was not to be removed until His death (Eph 2:14, 15; Heb 10:20). Even now, He is only seen by faith, through the windows of His Word and the lattice of ordinances and sacraments (Lu 24:35; Joh 14:21); not full vision (1Co 13:12); an incentive to our looking for His second coming (Isa 33:17; Tit 2:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Like a roe or a young hart; either,

1. In loveliness. Or rather,

2. In swiftness, by comparing this verse with the former. The swiftness of roes is noted 2 Samuel 2:18 1 Chronicles 12:8. He is coming to me with all speed, and will not tarry a moment beyond the appointed and proper season.

He standeth behind our wall; and whilst he doth for wise and just reasons forbear to come, he is not far from us. Though he be not yet come into the door of our house, yet he stands behind the wall of our house, and is always at hand, to give me that succour and comfort which I do or may need or desire. Both this and the following phrases seem to note the obscure and imperfect manner and degree of Christ’s manifesting himself to his people, either,

1. Under the law, in comparison of his discoveries in the gospel. Or,

2. In this life, in comparison of what he will do in the future life.

He looketh forth, from his high and heavenly palace, towards me, to watch over me, and refresh me with the prospect of his favour.

At the window: this phrase, and that,

through the lattice, intimate that the church doth indeed see Christ, but, as through a glass, darkly, as it is said even of gospel revelations, 1 Corinthians 13:12, and was much more true of legal administrations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart,.... The church, upon the swift and speedy approach of Christ unto her, compares him to these creatures; which are well known for their swiftness (l) in running, and agility in leaping, as before observed: and, besides these things, Christ may be compared to them on other accounts; they are pleasant and lovely, choice and valuable; bear an antipathy to serpents, which they easily overcome; are very good for food, and very agreeable, and are long lived creatures (m); Christ is lovely and amiable in his person, and high in the esteem of his divine Father, angels and men; is choice and excellent in his nature, offices, and grace; bears an antipathy to the old serpent, the devil, whose works and powers he came to destroy, and has got an entire victory over them; and is very agreeable food to faith; his flesh is meat indeed, and the more so through his sufferings and death; as the flesh of those creatures is said to be the more tender and agreeable, by being hunted; and Christ, though dead, is alive, and lives for evermore;

behold, he standeth behind our wall; not the middle wall of the ceremonial law, behind which, Christ, under the Old Testament dispensation, stood, showing himself to believers; nor the wall of our humanity he partook of, when he came in the flesh, and under which his glorious deity was in some measure covered and hid; but rather the wall of our hearts, Jeremiah 4:19; the hardness, infidelity, and carnal reasonings of it, which are so many walls of separation between Christ and his people; behind which he stands, showing his resentment of them, and in order to demolish them, and get admittance: he is represented here, as nearer than when she first saw him, even at her very home;

he looketh forth at the windows; this is coming nearer still; for, by the manner of the expression, it seems that he was within doors, since he is said, not to look through the windows, but to look forth at them, meaning the ordinances; which are that to the church as windows to a house, the means of letting in light into the souls of men; and where Christ shows himself, in his glory and beauty, as kings and great personages look out at windows to show themselves to their people: though Christ may also be said to look in at, those windows, to observe the behaviour of his people in his house and ordinances, with what attention, affection, faith, and reverence, they wait upon him in them;

showing himself through the lattice; by which may be meant the same things, only a larger and clearer discovery of Christ in them, of which ordinances are the means; and yet, unless Christ shows himself through them, he cannot be seen in them: and a "behold" being prefixed to these gradual discoveries of himself, show them to be wonderful! a glance of him behind the wall is surprising; his looking in at the windows still more so; but his showing himself, in all his glories and excellencies, through the lattice, is enough to throw into the greatest rapture, to fill with joy unspeakable and full of glory! Some render the word "flourishing" (n), like a rose or lily, or like a vine, or jessamine; which grow up by a window or lattice, and, seen through them, took very pleasant and delightful. But the allusion is rather to the quick sighted roe, or young hart; which, as it is remarkable for its swiftness, referred to, Sol 2:8, so for the sharpness of its sight; Pliny (o) says it is never dim sighted; it has its name "dorcas", in Greek, from its sight.

(l) "Cervi veloces", Virgil. Aeneid. 5. v. 253. (m) Vid. Pausaniae Arcad. sive l. 8. p. 472. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 32. Aelian de Animal. l. 2. c. 9. Solin. Polyhistor. c. 31, Frantz. Animal, Sacr. par. 1. c. 15. (n) "efflorescens", Piscator, Michaelis, so Ainsworth. (o) Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 11.

Geneva Study Bible

My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he {e} standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, gazing himself through the {f} lattice.

(e) For as his divinity was hidden under the cloak of our flesh.

(f) So that we cannot have full knowledge of him in this life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart] Preferably, like a gazelle or a young hart.

our wall] The possessive pronoun here must, on the hypothesis we have adopted, refer to the Shulammite and the court ladies among whom she is. She speaks of her lover as having now arrived, as standing outside the wall and looking into the chamber.

he looketh forth at the windows] Lit. he gazeth from the windows, glanceth from the lattices. These phrases may mean, either that the person referred to looks out, or that he looks in. All they imply is that the person looking directs his glances from the windows, and so they may legitimately be rendered, looketh in at the windows … glanceth through the lattices. The allegorical interpreters all made the bridegroom look out from a safe and quiet dwelling into which the bride desired to come. But, obviously, when the scene actually portrayed is realised, it is seen that he is outside, seeking her, and comes close up to the windows and lattices and peers in. The word translated glanceth denotes glimmering, shining, and indicates that the charakkim = ‘lattices’ are openings narrower than windows, and the lover had come so close to them that the gleam of his eyes could be seen.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - My beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh in at the windows, he showeth himself through the lattice. The tsevi is the gazelle, Arabic ghazal. Our word is derived through the Spanish or Moorish gazela. The young hart, or chamois, is probably so called from the covering of young hair (cf. 2 Samuel 2:18; Proverbs 6:5; Hebrews 3:19). Shulamith represents herself as within the house, waiting for her friend. Her beloved is standing behind the wall, outside before the house; he is playfully looking through the windows, now through one and now through another, seeking her with peering eyes of love. Both the words employed, convey, the meaning of searching and moving quickly. The windows; literally, the openings; i.e. a window broken through a wall, or the meaning may be a lattice window, a pierced wooden structure. The word is not the common word for a window, which is shevaka (now shabbaka), from a root meaning "to twist," "to make a lattice." Spiritually, we may see an allusion to the glimpses of truth and tastes of the goodness of religion, which precede the real fellowship of the soul with God. Song of Solomon 2:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

9 My beloved is like a gazelle,

   Or a young one of the harts.

   Lo, there he stands behind our wall!

   He looks through the windows,

   Glances through the lattices.

The figure used in Sol 2:8 is continued in Sol 2:9. צבי is the gazelle, which is thus designated after its Arab. name ghazāl, which has reached us probably through the Moorish-Spanish gazela (distinct from "ghasele," after the Pers. ghazal, love-poem). עפר is the young hart, like the Arab. ghufar (ghafar), the young chamois, probably from the covering of young hair; whence also the young lion may be called כּפיר. Regarding the effect of או passing from one figure to another, vid., under Sol 2:7. The meaning would be plainer were Sol 2:9 joined to Sol 2:8, for the figures illustrate quick-footed speed (2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8; cf. Psalm 18:34 with Habakkuk 3:19 and Isaiah 35:6). In Sol 2:9 he comes with the speed of the gazelle, and his eyes seek for the unforgotten one. כּתל (from כּתל, compingere, condensare; whence, e.g., Arab. mukattal, pressed together, rounded, ramass; vid., regarding R. כת at Psalm 87:6), Aram. כּוּתל (Joshua 2:15; Targ. word for קיר), is meant of the wall of the house itself, not of the wall surrounding it. Shulamith is within, in the house: her beloved, standing behind the wall, stands without, before the house (Tympe: ad latus aversum parietis, viz., out from it), and looks through the windows, - at one time through this one, at another through that one, - that he might see her and feast his eyes on her. We have here two verbs from the fulness of Heb. synon. for one idea of seeing. השׁגּיח, from שׁגח, occurring only three times in the O.T., refers, in respect of the roots ש, שך, שק, to the idea of piercing or splitting (whence also שׁגּע, to be furious, properly pierced, percitum esse; cf. oestrus, sting of a gadfly equals madness, Arab. transferred to hardiness equals madness), and means fixing by reflexion and meditation; wherefore השׁגּחח in post-bibl. Heb. is the name for Divine Providence. הציץ, elsewhere to twinkle and to bloom, appears only here in the sense of seeing, and that of the quick darting forward of the glance of the eye, as blick glance and blitz lightning (blic) are one word; "he saw," says Goethe in Werther, "the glance of the powder" (Weigand).

(Note: In this sense: to look sharply toward, is הציץ (Talm.) - for Grtz alone a proof that the Song is of very recent date; but this word belongs, like סמדר, to the old Heb. still preserved in the Talm.)

The plurs. fenestrae and transennae are to be understood also as synechdoche totius pro parte, which is the same as the plur. of categ.; but with equal correctness we conceive of him as changing his standing place. חלּון is the window, as an opening in the wall, from חלל, perforare. חרכּים we combine most certainly (vid., Proverbs 12:27) with (Arab.) khark, fissura, so that the idea presents itself of the window broken through the wall, or as itself broken through; for the window in the country there consists for the most part of a pierced wooden frame of a transparent nature, - not (as one would erroneously conclude, from the most significant name of a window שׂבכה, now schubbâke, from שׂבך, to twist, to lattice, to close after the manner of our Venetian blinds) of rods or boards laid crosswise. הציץ accords with the looking out through the pierced places of such a window, for the glances of his eye are like the penetrating rays of light.