Song of Solomon 2:5

5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.

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.


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 wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention toward me was love.
5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.
6 O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!
7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.