Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 2:15

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, That spoil the vineyards; For our vineyards are in blossom." — Song Of Solomon 2:15 (ASV)

Take us the foxes. — Possibly this is a verse of a familiar country song, introduced here from the suggestion of the “sweet voice” in the last verse; but more probably it is to be compared to the “begone” so commonly addressed by poets in Epithalamia and love songs to all mischievous and troublesome creatures. Thus in Spenser’s Epithalamium, owls, storks, ravens, and frogs are warned off.

Foxes. — Compare Judges 15:4. Whether our fox or the jackal (Hebrew, shual), it is known to be equally destructive to vineyards. Theocritus (Idylls 5:112) is often compared:—

“I hate those brush-tailed foxes, that each night
Spoil Micon’s vineyards with their deadly bite.”

In the allegorizing commentators they stand for heretics.