Song Of Solomon 6:10 - Exposition

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners? This, of course, is the praise which comes from the lips of the queens and concubines, the ladies of the harem, the daughters of Jerusalem. The word rendered "looketh forth" is literally "bendeth forward," i.e. in order to look out or forth (cf. Psalms 14:2 ), LXX ; ἐκκυπτοῦσα Venet; παρακυπτοῦσα (cf. James 1:25 , "stooping down and looking into the Word as into well"). The idea seems to be that of a rising luminary, looking forth from the background, breaking through the shades of the garden, like the morning star appearing above the horizon ( ὡς ἑωσφόρος , Venetian) (cf. Isaiah 14:12 , where the morning star is called הֶן שַׁחַר ). The moon is generally יָדֵח , "yellow," but here לְבָנָה , "white," i.e. pale and sweet, as the lesser light, with true womanly delicacy and fairness; but the rest of the description, which plainly is added for the sake of the symbolical suggestiveness of the figures, removes all idea of mere weakness. Clear (or, bright ) as the sun. And the word for "sun" is not, as usual, shemesh, but chammah, "heat," the warming light ( Psalms 19:7 ; see Job 31:26 ; Isaiah 49:2 ). The fierce rays of the Eastern sun are terrible to those who encounter them. The glory of the Church is a glory overwhelming as against all that opposes it. The description is pure hyperbole as applied to a fair bride, referring to the blazing beauty of her face and adornments, but symbolically it has always been felt a precious contribution to religious language. Perhaps no sentence in the Old Testament has been more frequently on the lips of devout men, especially when they have been speaking of the victories of the truth and the glowing prospects of the Saviour's kingdom.