Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 8:5

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: There thy mother was in travail with thee, There was she in travail that brought thee forth." — Song Of Solomon 8:5 (ASV)

Who is this that comes. —This begins a new section, which contains the most magnificent description of true love ever written by a poet. The dramatic theory encounters insuperable difficulties with this strophe. Again we presume that the theater and the spectators are imaginary. It is another sweet reminiscence, coming most naturally and beautifully after the last. The obstacles have been removed, the pair are united, and the poet recalls the delightful sensations with which he led his bride through the scenes where the youth of both had been spent, and then bursts out into the glorious panegyric of that pure and perfect passion which had united them.

Leaning upon her beloved ... —The Septuagint adds here shining white, and the Vulgate, flowing with delights.

I raised you up. —Literally, aroused: i.e., I inspired you with love. For this sense of exciting a passion, given to the Hebrew word, compare Proverbs 10:12; Zechariah 9:13. Delitzsch restores from the Syriac what must have been the original vowel-pointing, making the suffixes feminine instead of masculine.

There your mother ... —This is not necessarily under the apple-tree, which is commemorated as the scene of the betrothal, but near it. The poet delights to recall these early associations, the feelings with which he had watched her home and waited for her coming.

The Vulgate has here ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genetrix tua, which suggests allegory. So in later times, the tree has been interpreted as the Cross; the individual inspired to love under it represents the Gentiles redeemed at the foot of the Cross; and the deflowered and corrupted mother signifies the synagogue of the Jews (the mother of the Christian Church), which was corrupted by denying and crucifying the Savior.