Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 2:3

"As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste." — Song Of Solomon 2:3 (ASV)

Apple tree. — So the Septuagint and Vulgate render it; the Hebrew is tappuach. Out of the six times that the word is used, four occur in this book, the other two being Proverbs 25:11—apple of gold—and Joel 1:12, where it is joined with the vine, fig, and so on, as suffering from drought. It has been identified in very different ways. The quince, the citron, the apple, and the apricot have each had their advocates.

The apple may be set aside, because the Palestinian fruit usually called the apple is really the quince, as the climate is too hot for our apple. (But see Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 546.) The requirements to be satisfied are:

1. Grateful shade (Song of Solomon 2:3);
2. Agreeable taste (Song of Solomon 2:3–5);
3. Sweet perfume (Song of Solomon 7:8);
4. Golden appearance (Proverbs 25:11).

The quince is preferred by many, as it was consecrated to love by the ancients, but it does not satisfy the second requirement, being astringent and unpleasant to the taste until cooked.

The citron, according to Thomson and Tristram, does not satisfy the first requirement. However, according to Rev. W. Drake, in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, “it is a large and beautiful tree, gives a deep and refreshing shade, and is laden with golden-coloured fruit.”

The apricot meets all the requirements and is, with the exception of the fig, the most abundant fruit of the country. “In highlands and lowlands alike, by the shores of the Mediterranean and on the banks of the Jordan, in the nooks of Judea, under the heights of Lebanon, in the recesses of Galilee, and in the glades of Gilead, the apricot flourishes and yields a crop of prodigious abundance.

Many times have we pitched our tents in its shade, and spread our carpets secure from the rays of the sun... There can scarcely be a more deliciously-perfumed fruit; and what can better fit the epithet of Solomon, apples of gold in pictures of silver, than its golden fruit as its branches bend under the weight, in their setting of bright yet pale foliage?” (Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 335).

Among the sons — i.e., among other young men.