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Selected Verse: Song of solomon 5:5 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
So 5:5	King James	I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
dropped with myrrh--The best proof a bride could give her lover of welcome was to anoint herself (the back of the hands especially, as being the coolest part of the body) profusely with the best perfumes (Exo 30:23; Est 2:12; Pro 7:17); "sweet-smelling" is in the Hebrew rather, "spontaneously exuding" from the tree, and therefore the best. She designed also to anoint Him, whose "head was filled with the drops of night" (Luk 24:1). The myrrh typifies bitter repentance, the fruit of the Spirit's unction (Co2 1:21-22). handles of the lock--sins which closed the heart against Him.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

dropped with myrrh--The best proof a bride could give her lover of welcome was to anoint herself (the back of the hands especially, as being the coolest part of the body) profusely with the best perfumes (Exo 30:23; Est 2:12; Pro 7:17); "sweet-smelling" is in the Hebrew rather, "spontaneously exuding" from the tree, and therefore the best. She designed also to anoint Him, whose "head was filled with the drops of night" (Luk 24:1). The myrrh typifies bitter repentance, the fruit of the Spirit's unction (Co2 1:21-22).

handles of the lock--sins which closed the heart against Him.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Sweet smelling myrrh - Or (as in the margin) "running myrrh," that which first and spontaneously exudes, i. e., the freshest, finest myrrh. Even in withdrawing he has left this token of his unchanged love.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Sweet smelling myrrh - Or (as in the margin) "running myrrh," that which first and spontaneously exudes, i. e., the freshest, finest myrrh. Even in withdrawing he has left this token of his unchanged love.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
5 I arose to open to my beloved, And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handle of the bolt. The personal pron. אני stands without emphasis before the verb which already contains it; the common language of the people delights in such particularity. The Book of Hosea, the Ephraimite prophet's work, is marked by such a style. עבר מור, with which the parallel clause goes beyond the simple mōr, is myrrh flowing over, dropping out of itself, i.e., that which breaks through the bark of the balsamodendron myrrha, or which flows out if an incision is made in it; myrrha stacte, of which Pliny (xii. 35) says: cui nulla praefertur, otherwise דּרור מר, from דּרר, to gush out, to pour itself forth in rich jets. He has come perfumed as if for a festival, and the costly ointment which he brought with him has dropped on the handles of the bolts (מנעוּל, keeping locked, after the form מלבּוּשׁ, drawing on), viz., the inner bolt, which he wished to withdraw. A classical parallel is found in Lucretius, iv. 1171: "At lacrimans exclusus amator limina saepe Floribus et sertis operit postesque superbos Unguit amaracino" ... Bttch. here puts to Hitzig the question, "Did the shepherd, the peasant of Engedi, bring with him oil of myrrh?" Rejecting this reasonable explanation, he supposes that the Shulamitess, still in Solomon's care, on rising up quickly dipped her hand in the oil of myrrh, that she might refresh her beloved. She thus had it near her before her bed, as a sick person her decoction. The right answer was, that the visitant by night is not that imaginary personage, but it is Solomon. She had dreamed that he stood before her door and knocked. But finding no response, he again in a moment withdrew, when it was proved that Shulamith did not requite his love and come forth to meet it in its fulness as she ought.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

5 I arose to open to my beloved,

And my hands dropped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh,

On the handle of the bolt.

The personal pron. אני stands without emphasis before the verb which already contains it; the common language of the people delights in such particularity. The Book of Hosea, the Ephraimite prophet's work, is marked by such a style. עבר מור, with which the parallel clause goes beyond the simple mōr, is myrrh flowing over, dropping out of itself, i.e., that which breaks through the bark of the balsamodendron myrrha, or which flows out if an incision is made in it; myrrha stacte, of which Pliny (xii. 35) says: cui nulla praefertur, otherwise דּרור מר, from דּרר, to gush out, to pour itself forth in rich jets. He has come perfumed as if for a festival, and the costly ointment which he brought with him has dropped on the handles of the bolts (מנעוּל, keeping locked, after the form מלבּוּשׁ, drawing on), viz., the inner bolt, which he wished to withdraw. A classical parallel is found in Lucretius, iv. 1171:

"At lacrimans exclusus amator limina saepe

Floribus et sertis operit postesque superbos

Unguit amaracino" ...

Bttch. here puts to Hitzig the question, "Did the shepherd, the peasant of Engedi, bring with him oil of myrrh?" Rejecting this reasonable explanation, he supposes that the Shulamitess, still in Solomon's care, on rising up quickly dipped her hand in the oil of myrrh, that she might refresh her beloved. She thus had it near her before her bed, as a sick person her decoction. The right answer was, that the visitant by night is not that imaginary personage, but it is Solomon. She had dreamed that he stood before her door and knocked. But finding no response, he again in a moment withdrew, when it was proved that Shulamith did not requite his love and come forth to meet it in its fulness as she ought.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
I rose - I went forth to receive him. Dropped - With oil or ointment made of myrrh, which dropped from the bridegroom's hand upon the door in great abundance, when he put it into the hole of the door, and consequently upon her hands and fingers when she touched the door to open it. By which she signifies, that Christ, though he withdrew himself from her, yet left a sweet savour behind him. The handles - Heb. with myrrh passing or flowing upon the handles of the lock, which place the bridegroom had touched when he attempted to open it.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

I rose - I went forth to receive him. Dropped - With oil or ointment made of myrrh, which dropped from the bridegroom's hand upon the door in great abundance, when he put it into the hole of the door, and consequently upon her hands and fingers when she touched the door to open it. By which she signifies, that Christ, though he withdrew himself from her, yet left a sweet savour behind him. The handles - Heb. with myrrh passing or flowing upon the handles of the lock, which place the bridegroom had touched when he attempted to open it.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
My hands dropped with myrrh - It was a custom among the Romans, as Brissonius, Isidore, and others relate, to conduct the bride to the house of the bridegroom with lighted torches; and those who brought her anointed the door-posts with fragant oils, whence the name uxor, or as it was formerly written unxor, for a wife or married woman, because of the anointing which took place on the occasion; for sometimes the bride herself anointed the door-posts, and sometimes those who brought her; probably both at the same time. The same custom might have existed among the Jews. See Vossius' Etymologicon.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

My hands dropped with myrrh - It was a custom among the Romans, as Brissonius, Isidore, and others relate, to conduct the bride to the house of the bridegroom with lighted torches; and those who brought her anointed the door-posts with fragant oils, whence the name uxor, or as it was formerly written unxor, for a wife or married woman, because of the anointing which took place on the occasion; for sometimes the bride herself anointed the door-posts, and sometimes those who brought her; probably both at the same time. The same custom might have existed among the Jews. See Vossius' Etymologicon.

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