9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The similes employed refer to the graces of adornment, speech, and gesture, as expressions of inward character and sentiment.
With one of thine eyes - Rather, with one look of thine.
Thou hast ravished my heart - לבבתני libbabtini, "Thou hast hearted me," i.e., taken away my heart; as we say, "He has barked the tree," i.e., he has stripped it of its bark; "He has fleeced the flock," i.e., deprived them of their wool.
With one of thine eyes - באצד מעיניך beachad meeynayich. This has been thought a harsh expression, and various emendations have been sought. The Masoretes have put באצת beachath, "at once," in the margin; and this is confirmed by twenty of Kennicott's MSS. but De Rossi does not notice it. It is scarceiy necessary; the sense to me is clear and good without it. "Even one of thine eyes, or one glance of thine eyes, has been sufficient to deprive me of all power; it has completely overcome me;" for glance may be understood, and such forms of speech are common in all languages, when speaking on such subjects. If even taken literally, the sense is good; for the poet may refer to a side glance, shot in passing by or turning away, where only one eye could be seen. I think this a better sense than that which is obtained from the Masoretic emendation.
With one chain of thy neck - Probably referring to the play of the cervical muscles, rather than to necklaces, or ringlets of hair.
Thou hast ravished my heart, my (e) sister, [my] spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy (f) eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
(e) Christ calls his Church sister in respect that he had taken the flesh of man.
(f) In that he made his Church beautiful and rich, he loved his gifts in her.
Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse,.... Here another new title is given to the church, "my sister", with the repetition of the former, my "spouse": for one and the same person, with the Hebrews, might be sister and spouse; see 1-Corinthians 9:5. And this may be used in a love strain, and so not improper in a love poem, as this was (g); see Song 8:8; likewise the church may be called Christ's sister, because of his incarnation, in virtue of which he is not ashamed to call his people his brethren, and so his sisters, Hebrews 2:11; and on account of their adoption; in which respect, he that is Christ's Father is theirs; and which is evidenced in regeneration; when they, through grace, do the will of his Father, and so are his brother, and sister, and mother, Matthew 12:50. And, upon the whole, it is used to express the great affection of Christ for the church, and his high esteem of her; and which appears by his saying, "thou hast ravished my heart"; which is but one word in the Hebrew text, and nowhere else used, and is variously rendered: the Vulgate Latin version is, "thou hast wounded my heart" (h): with one of love's darts, Song 2:5; "thou hast drawn my heart unto thee", so some Jewish writers (i); which is surprising, since no love nor loveliness are in her of herself; this shows how free and unmerited the love of Christ is; according to the use of the word with the Talmudists (k), the sense is, "thou hast coupled mine heart with thine"; the heart of Christ and his church are so closely knit and joined together in love, that they are but one heart, and can never be separated: others, "thou hast seized my heart"; or, "claimed it for thyself" (l); thou art master over it; it is no more mine, but thine The Septuagint version is, "thou hast unhearted us"; Father, Son, and Spirit; particularly the second Person: or thou hast stolen away my heart; I have no heart left in me; which, as it is the case through fear, is sometimes through love: this sense is approved by Aben Ezra. Some render it just the reverse, "thou hast heartened me" (m); put heart into me, animated me, made me of good cheer; so the word is used in the Syriac version of Matthew 9:2. The sense may be, that such was the love of Christ to his church, and so much was he charmed by her, that the thought of his having her company in heaven to all eternity animated him to endure all sufferings he did for her sake, Hebrews 12:2; The Targum is,
"thy love is fixed upon the table of my heart;''
where the church herself was fixed, Song 8:6;
thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes; the allusion may be to the custom of the eastern women; who, when they walked abroad or spoke to any, showed but one eye, the other, with the rest of the face, being covered with a veil (n): the eyes of women are ensnaring to lovers (o); the church has more eyes than one. Mention is made of the eyes of the understanding, Ephesians 1:18; faith is one of them, and may he here chiefly intended; by which a soul looks on Christ, the glories of his person, and the fulness of his grace; and looks so him for the blessings of grace now, and eternal glory hereafter: and with this Christ's heart is ravished; even with "one look" from it, or "glance" of it, as some (p) render it;
with one chain of thy neck; with the several graces of the Spirit, linked together as in a chain; which were about the neck of the church, and as ornamental to her as a pearl necklace, Song 1:10; and with every link in this chain Christ's heart is ravished and delighted. The Vulgate Latin version is, "with one lock of hair of thy neck": which hung down in it, and looked very beautiful; and with which lovers are sometimes taken (q).
(g) "Sive tibi conjux, sive futura soror", Tibullus. (h) "vulnerasti cor meum", V. L. so Ben Melech; and Kimchi Sepher Shorash. rad. (i) Jarchi, David de Pomis, Lexic fol. 69. 3. (k) "Cor copulasti mihi", Buxtorf. Hottinger. Smegma, p. 164. Vid. Misn. Sabbat, c. 5. s. 2. (l) "Occupasti", Lutherus, Marckius; "vendicasti", Tigurine version. (m) "Animasti me", Cocceius, Schmidt. (n) Tertuilian. de. Virg. Veland. c. 17. Le Bruyn's Voyage to the Levant, ch. 40. p. 157. (o) See Prov. vi. 25. So the poet says of Helena, ' , Theocrit. Idyll. 18. "Perque tuos oculos qui rapuere meos", Ovid. Amor. l. 3, Eleg. 10. Vid. Barthii ad Claudian. Nupt. Honor. v. 6. (p) "uno aspecto oculorum tuorum", Junius & Tremellius, so Ainsworth. (q) ' ' , Theocrit. Idyll. 5.
sister . . . spouse--This title is here first used, as He is soon about to institute the Supper, the pledge of the nuptial union. By the term "sister," carnal ideas are excluded; the ardor of a spouse's love is combined with the purity of a sister's (Isaiah 54:5; compare Mark 3:35).
one--Even one look is enough to secure His love (Zac 12:10; Luke 23:40-43). Not merely the Church collectively, but each one member of it (Matthew 18:10, Matthew 18:14; Luke 15:7, Luke 15:24, Luke 15:32).
chain--necklace (Isaiah 62:3; Malachi 3:17), answering to the "shields" hanging in the tower of David (Song 4:4). Compare the "ornament" (1-Peter 3:4); "chains" (Proverbs 1:9; Proverbs 3:22).
All that the king calls his, she now can call hers; for she has won his heart, and with his heart himself and all that is his.
9 Thou hast taken my heart, my sister-bride;
Thou hast taken my heart with one of thy glances,
With a little chain of thy necklace.
The Piel לבּב may mean to make courageous, and it actually has this meaning in the Aram., wherefore the Syr. retains the word; Symm. renders it by ἐθάρσυνάς με. But is it becoming in a man who is no coward, especially in a king, to say that the love he cherishes gives him heart, i.e., courage? It might be becoming, perhaps, in a warrior who is inspired by the thought of his beloved, whose respect and admiration he seeks to gain, to dare the uttermost. But Solomon is no Antar, no wandering knight.
(Note: A specimen of Bttcher's interpretation: "What is more natural than to suppose that the keeper of a vineyard showed herself with half of her head and neck exposed at the half-opened window to her shepherd on his first attempt to set her free, when he cried, 'my dove in the clefts of the rocks,' etc., and animated him thereby to this present bold deliverance of her from the midst of robbers?" We pity the Shulamitess, that she put her trust in this moonshiny coward.)
Besides, the first effect of love is different: it influences those whom it governs, not as encouraging, in the first instance, but as disarming them; love responded to encourages, but love in its beginning, which is the subject here, overpowers. We would thus more naturally render: "thou hast unhearted me;" but "to unheart," according to the Semitic and generally the ancient conception of the heart (Psychol. p. 254), does not so much mean to captivate the heart, as rather to deprive of understanding or of judgment (cf. Hosea 4:11). Such denomin. Pi. of names of corporeal members signify not merely taking away, but also wounding, and generally any violent affection of it, as זנּב, גּרם, Ewald, 120c; accordingly the lxx, Venet., and Jerome: ἐκαρδίωσάς με, vulnerasti cor meum. The meaning is the same for "thou hast wounded my heart" = "thou hast subdued my heart" (cf. Psalm 45:6). With one of her glances, with a little chain of her necklace, she has overcome him as with a powerful charm: veni, visa sum, vici. The Kerı̂ changes באחד into בּאחת; certainly עין is mostly fem. (e.g., Judges 16:28), but not only the non-bibl. usus loq., which e.g., prefers רעה or רע עין, of a malignant bewitching look, but also the bibl. (vid., Zac 3:9; Zac 4:10) treats the word as of double gender. ענק and צוּרנים are related to each other as a part is to the whole. With the subst. ending n, the designation of an ornament designed for the neck is formed from צוּאר, the neck; cf. שׂהרון, the "round tires like the moon" of the women's toilet, Isaiah 3:18. ענק (connected with אחד ענק, cervix) is a separate chain (Aram. עוּנקתא) of this necklace. In the words ענק אחד, אחד is used instead of אחד, occurring also out of genit. connection (Genesis 48:22; 2-Samuel 17:22), and the arrangement (vid., under Psalm 89:51) follows the analogy of the pure numerals as נשׁים שׁלשׁ; it appears to be transferred from the vulgar language to that used in books, where, besides the passage before us, it occurs only in Daniel 8:13. That a glance of the eye may pierce the heart, experience shows; but how can a little chain of a necklace do this? That also is intelligible. As beauty becomes unlike itself when the attire shows want of taste, so by means of tasteful clothing, which does not need to be splendid, but may even be of the simplest kind, it becomes mighty. Hence the charming attractive power of the impression one makes communicates itself to all that he wears, as, e.g., the woman with the issue of blood touched with joyful hope the hem of Jesus' garment; for he who loves feels the soul of that which is loved in all that stands connected therewith, all that is, as it were, consecrated and charmed by the beloved object, and operates so much the more powerfully if it adorns it, because as an ornament of that which is beautiful, it appears so much the more beautiful. In the preceding verse, Solomon has for the first time addressed Shulamith by the title "bride." Here with heightened cordiality he calls her "sister-bride." In this change in the address the progress of the story is mirrored. Why he does not say כּלּתי (my bride), has already been explained, under Song 4:8, from the derivation of the word. Solomon's mother might call Shulamith callathi, but he gives to the relation of affinity into which Shulamith has entered a reference to himself individually, for he says ahhothi callaa (my sister-bride): she who as callaa of his mother is to her a kind of daughter, is as callaa in relation to himself, as it were, his sister.
My sister - So he calls her to shew the greatness of his love, which cannot sufficiently be expressed by any one relation. With one - With one glance. One chain - With one of those other graces and perfections wherewith thou art adorned.
*More commentary available at chapter level.