Song Of Solomon 7:11-12 - Exposition

Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages . Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine hath budded and its blossom be open, and the pomegranates be in flower: there will I give thee my love. All true poets will sympathize with the exquisite sentiment of the bride in this passage. The solitude and glory and reality of external nature are dearer to her than the bustle and splendour of the city and of the court. By "the field" is meant the country generally. The village or little town surrounded with vineyards and gardens was the scene of Shulamith's early life, and would always be delightful to her. The word is the plural of an unused form. It is found in the form copher ( 1 Samuel 6:18 ), meaning "a district of level country." Delitzsch renders, "let us get up early," rather differently—"in the morning we will start"—but the meaning is the same. The word dodhai, "my love," is "the evidences or expressions of my love" (cf. So Song of Solomon 4:16 ; Song of Solomon 1:2 ). No doubt the bride is speaking in the springtime, the Wonnemond of May, when the pulses beat in sympathy with the rising life of nature.