Song of Solomon 2:5

5 Sustain me with the raisins, refresh me with the apples, {for I [am] lovesick}.

Song of Solomon 2:5 Meaning and Commentary

Song of Solomon 2:5

Stay me with flagons
Of wine, which is a supporter of the animal spirits ^F23. The church was now in a house of wine, where was plenty of it; even of the love of Christ, compared to wine, and preferred unto it, ( Song of Solomon 1:2 Song of Solomon 1:4 ) ; the church though she had had large discoveries of it, desired more; and such that have once tasted of this love are eagerly desirous of it, and cannot be satisfied until they have their fill of it in heaven: the flagons, being vessels in which wine is put, and from thence poured out, may signify the word and ordinances, in which the love of Christ is displayed and manifested; the church desires she might be stayed and supported hereby, while she was attending on Christ in them; comfort me with apples;
with exceeding great and precious promises; which, when fitly spoken and applied, are "like apples of gold in pictures of silver", ( Proverbs 25:11 ) ; and are very comforting: or rather, with fresh and greater manifestations of his love still; for the apple is an emblem of love, as before observed; for one to send or throw an apple to another indicated love ^F24. It may be rendered, "strew me with apples" ^F25; in great quantities, about me, before me, and under me, and all around me, that I may lie down among them, and be sweetly refreshed and strengthened: the words, both in this and the former clause, are in the plural number; and so may be an address to the other two divine Persons, along with Christ, to grant further manifestations of love unto her, giving the following reason for it: for I [am] sick of love;
not as loathing it, but as wanting, and eagerly desirous of more of it; being, as the Septuagint version is, "wounded" ^F26 with it; love's dart stuck in her, and she was inflamed therewith: and "languished" ^F1; as the Vulgate Latin version is; with earnest desires after it; nor could she be easy without it, as is the case of lovers.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 "Vino fulcire venas cadentes", Senecae Ep. 95.
F24 "Malo me Galatea petit", Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 3. v. 64. Vid. Theocrit. Idyll. 3. v. 10. & Idyll. 6. v. 6, 7. & Suidam in voce (mhlon) .
F25 (ynwdpr) "sternite ante me", so some in Vatablus; "substernite mihi", Tigurine version, Piscator.
F26 (tetrwmhnh) , Sept.
F1 "Langueo amore", V. L. so Michaelis; "aegrotus" is used in this sense, in Terent. Heautont. l. 1.

Song of Solomon 2:5 In-Context

3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so [is] my beloved among the young men. In his shade {I sat down with delight}, and his fruit [was] sweet to my palate.

4 He brought me to the house of the wine, and his intention [was] love toward me.

5 Sustain me with the raisins, refresh me with the apples, {for I [am] lovesick}.

6 His left [hand] [is] under my head, and his right [hand] embraces me.

7 I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "for I myself [am] sick with love"