Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/71



wounded her, and stripped her of her cloak; that is, they misdirected her, had hindered her from getting to her beloved; for sin once tasted is hard to forsake. As it is not mentioned in the case of Adam, after being driven from the garden of Eden, that he ever touched with his hand, and took of the tree of life, and was cured, though it was open for him to do so; for it is written, "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. iii. 22); by which is meant, would that he should do so, for the Lord loves righteousness, and he is not a God desiring condemnation; as it is written, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) Yet it is not stated in the Scriptures that after the fall he ever ate of the tree of life. This is, perhaps, a hint that it is almost impossible for one who once has eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that he should afterwards eat of the tree of life. "For the difficulty of uniting a couple a second time is as great as dividing the Red Sea," which was supernatural, although it is indeed not impossible. Thus Solomon left the thing unexplained; and though he mentioned how they longed for each other after their separation, and how they praised one another in the manner of lovers, yet they are not any more found united, or to have a nuptial couch, a palanquin, feast and joy, as a husband and wife; nay, at the conclusion we even find the beloved reproving her, saying, "Neighbours hear thy voice," it being improper for a woman to let her voice be heard by young men, for there is dishonour in a woman's voice. He therefore asks her to let her voice be heard by him only, and not by others. But she boldly replied, "Haste, my beloved, and be like the gazelle or the young fawn upon the mountains of aromatics;" as if the neighbours were her husbands, and her husband a paramour who must conceal himself, and run away, lest they meet him.

This section also is subdivided into two parts: the first is from v. 2 to viii. 5, and the second from viii. 5, to the end of the book; the second part being epexegetical of the first. The above is the division of the Book in accordance with the learned, who wrote expositions on it.


 * [Footnote: ]