There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,
and
virgins without number.
] In this verse and ( Song of
Solomon 6:9 ) the church is commended as she stood related to
others; and is compared with them, and preferred to them. The
words may be considered either as an assertion, "there are" or as
a supposition, "though there be", &c. yet Christ's church is
but one, and excels them all. "Queens" are principal and lawful
wives of kings; "concubines", secondary or half wives, as the
word F9 signifies; who were admitted to the
bed, but their children did not inherit: "virgins", unmarried
persons, maids of honour, who waited on the queen. The allusion
is to the custom of kings and great personages, who had many
wives, and more concubines, and a large number of virgins to wait
on them; see ( 1 Kings 11:3
) ; or to a nuptial solemnity, and the ceremony of introducing
the bride to the bridegroom, attended with a large number of
persons of distinction; and so Theocritus F11 speaks
of four times sixty virgins attending the nuptials of Menelaus
and Helena; see ( Psalms 45:9 ) . By all
which may be meant either the kingdoms and nations of the world;
by "queens", the more large, rich and flourishing kingdoms; by
"concubines", inferior states; and by "virgins without number",
the vast multitudes of inhabitants that fill them; but all, put
together, are not equal to the church; see ( Song of
Solomon 2:2 ) ; or else false churches; by "queens", such who
boast of their riches and number, as the church of Rome, (
Revelation 18:7 ) ; by
"concubines", such as are inferior in those things, but equally
corrupt, as Arians, Socinians and by "virgins without number",
the multitudes of poor, weak, ignorant people, seduced by them;
and what figure soever these make, or pretensions to be the true
churches of Christ, they are none of his, his spouse is preferred
to them all. Or rather true believers in Christ, of different
degrees, are here meant; queens, those that have the greatest
share of gifts grace, most nearness to Christ, and communion with
him; by "concubines", believers of a lower class, and of a more
servile spirit, and yet sometimes are favoured with, fellowship
with Christ; and by "virgins", young converts, who have not so
large an experience as the former; and this distribution agrees
with ( 1 John
2:13 1 John 2:14 ) ; and the
rather this may be the sense, since each of these are said to
praise the church in ( Song of
Solomon 6:9 ) , who is preferable to them, and includes them
all.