Song of Solomon 8:5

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"

We have great respect for Waddey, his scholarship, insight and perception; and although we cannot agree with his interpretation here, we cite it as one view of the passage:

"Solomon appears with his bride on his arm; as the loving couple approach, Solomon points to the very spot where they first met (under the apple-tree!)."[5] To this writer, there seems to be an impossible incongruity in the king of the mightiest empire on earth seducing some country girl under an apple tree!

Our interpretation of this verse is inherent in the stark contrast with the expression in Song of Solomon 3:6, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, etc."

In Song of Solomon 3:6, the reference was to the royal parade of the magnificent Solomon in all his glory.

Here in Song of Solomon 8:5, the reference is to this simple maid leaning upon her shepherd lover.

Note the contrast: Solomon stands for all the worldly allurements: wealth, power, fame, glitter, pomp and circumstance, ease, luxury, ostentation, feasting, sensuality, lust and gratification. That disgusting picture answers the question in Song of Solomon 3:6.

The Shulamite stands for simple beauty, purity, wholesomeness, fidelity, patience, true love, morality, truth, honor and holiness, representing the Church in the days of her probation, sorely tempted, wooed, solicited and flattered by the evil world, but clinging, nevertheless, to the Shepherd above who is her true love, and to whom the Church is faithful even in his absence "in the far country." This answers the question of, "WHO IS THIS"? as it appears in Song of Solomon 8:5.

Balchin elaborates this understanding of the passage, as follows:

"The Shulamite and her shepherd lover here approach their home. The question, `who is this'? is on the lips of the villagers. The king's court with its luxuries and allurements is now far away; and she is now at home in every sense. Her shepherd lover tells how he made love to her under the apple-tree in her mother's garden."[6]

Song of Solomon 8:5-7

THE SHEPHERD'S ACCOUNT OF HIS WOOING THE MAIDEN

"Under the apple-tree, I awakened thee;

There thy mother was in travail with thee,

There she was in travail that brought thee forth.

Set me as a seal upon thy heart,

As a seal upon thine arm:

For love is strong as death;

Jealousy is cruel as Sheol;

The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,

A very flame of Jehovah.

Many waters cannot quench love,

Neither can floods drown it:

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

He would utterly be contemned."

All of these short paragraphs in this chapter are dramatically separated in the American Standard Version; and there remains the possibility mentioned by Jordan that, "We have here a series of lyrical fragments."[7]

The most acceptable interpretation which we have encountered for this short section is that, "It has in it the deepest and most comprehensive statements concerning true love that are found in the whole Song."[8] These marvelous words about genuine love could not possibly have been uttered by a man like Solomon. These wonderful words about love would fit Solomon exactly like a diamond ring in a swine's snout. The divine jealousy concerning his Church's constancy ("Jehovah is a jealous God") appears here. The Divine love for the Church is beyond comparison. No human power can overcome it. The flood waters of death, Sheol, Satan, and all the allurements of the world and the flesh cannot dissipate the love of Christ for his Church. "And true love is not only unquenchable; it is also unpurchasable. Solomon had made every effort to buy the Shulamite's love with all the glittering luxuries of his court, but to no avail."[9]

"There thy mother was in travail with thee" (Song of Solomon 8:5b). This is a reference to the bride's home place, not merely to the apple-tree in the orchard.

Here the Shulamite pleads with her lover to set her as a seal in his very heart; she has seen through all the tinsel ugliness of Solomon's ostentatious court, and here renounces all of it for the genuine and eternal love of her shepherd.

What a beautiful picture of Christ's holy Church is this? She rejects all of the golden promises of a materialistic and sensual world for that "Love of God that passeth understanding."