Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 2:7

"I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, Until he please." — Song Of Solomon 2:7 (ASV)

Roes. —Hebrew, tsebi, tsebiyah; undoubtedly the ghazal of the Arabs, the gazelle. (See 1 Chronicles 12:8.)

Hinds. —Hebrew, ayyalah. (See Genesis 49:21.) The Septuagint strangely read, by the powers and virtues of the field.

My love. —This term is used here almost certainly in the concrete sense, though there is no other instance of such use except in this and the corresponding passages.

The Authorized Version, “till he please,” is a mistake in grammar. It should read, till she please.

The poet imagines his beloved sleeping in his arms and playfully bids her companions to keep from intruding on her slumbers. This verse (which is repeated in Song of Solomon 3:5 and Song of Solomon 8:4) marks natural breaks in the poem and adds to the dramatic effect.

However, there is no occasion to imagine a real stage with actors grouped upon it. The “daughters of Jerusalem” are present only in the poet’s imagination.

It is his manner to imagine the presence of spectators of his happiness and to call on outsiders to share his bliss (compare Song of Solomon 3:11; Song of Solomon 5:16; Song of Solomon 6:13, and others). It is on this imaginary theater, which his love conjures up, that the curtain falls, here and in other places, on the union of the happy pair.

Like Spenser in his Epithalamium, this poet “unto himself alone will sing;” but he calls on all things bright and beautiful in the world of nature and humanity to help him solemnize this joyful rite. Now the moment has come when he bids “the maids and young men cease to sing.”