(10) Who is she.--This verse is supposed to be spoken by the admiring ladies. The paragraph mark in the English Version should rather be at the beginning of the next verse. (Comp.--

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun," &c--Romeo and Juliet.)

But the poet heightens his figure by combining both the great lights of heaven with the dawn, and putting the praise in the mouth of "the meaner beauties of the night," who feel their own inferiority "when the moon doth rise," still more before the "all paling" sun.

Verse 10. - Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners? This, of course, is the praise which comes from the lips of the queens and concubines, the ladies of the harem, the daughters of Jerusalem. The word rendered "looketh forth" is literally "bendeth forward," i.e. in order to look out or forth (cf. Psalm 14:2), LXX., ἐκκυπτοῦσα Venet., παρακυπτοῦσα (cf. James 1:25, "stooping down and looking into the Word as into well"). The idea seems to be that of a rising luminary, looking forth from the background, breaking through the shades of the garden, like the morning star appearing above the horizon (ὡς ἑωσφόρος, Venetian) (cf. Isaiah 14:12, where the morning star is called הֶן שַׁחַר). The moon is generally יָדֵח, "yellow," but here לְבָנָה, "white," i.e. pale and sweet, as the lesser light, with true womanly delicacy and fairness; but the rest of the description, which plainly is added for the sake of the symbolical suggestiveness of the figures, removes all idea of mere weakness. Clear (or, bright) as the sun. And the word for "sun" is not, as usual, shemesh, but chammah, "heat," the warming light (Psalm 19:7; see Job 31:26; Isaiah 49:2). The fierce rays of the Eastern sun are terrible to those who encounter them. The glory of the Church is a glory overwhelming as against all that opposes it. The description is pure hyperbole as applied to a fair bride, referring to the blazing beauty of her face and adornments, but symbolically it has always been felt a precious contribution to religious language. Perhaps no sentence in the Old Testament has been more frequently on the lips of devout men, especially when they have been speaking of the victories of the truth and the glowing prospects of the Saviour's kingdom.

6:4-10 All the real excellence and holiness on earth centre in the church. Christ goes forth subduing his enemies, while his followers gain victories over the world, the flesh, and the devil. He shows the tenderness of a Redeemer, the delight he takes in his redeemed people, and the workings of his own grace in them. True believers alone can possess the beauty of holiness. And when their real character is known, it will be commended. Both the church and believers, at their first conversion, look forth as the morning, their light being small, but increasing. As to their sanctification, they are fair as the moon, deriving all their light, grace, and holiness from Christ; and as to justification, clear as the sun, clothed with Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and fighting the good fight of faith, under the banners of Christ, against all spiritual enemies.Who is she that looketh forth as the morning?.... These words may be connected with the preceding, by a supplement of the word "saying"; and so may express what the daughters said, when they blessed and praised the church, wondering at her beauty, it being like the rising morning; so Helena is said to show her beautiful face, as the morning, when it springs forth (n): there was a city in the tribe of Reuben, called Zarethshahar, the beauty or splendour of the morning, Joshua 13:19. Homer often describes the morning by her rosy fingers (o), and as clothed with a saffron garment (p), and as beautiful and divine (q), and fair haired (r); and as on a golden throne and beautiful (s). And as these words describe the progressive gradations of light, so they may set forth the state and condition of the church in the several ages of the world; its first state in this clause, which may reach from the first dawn of light to Adam, Genesis 3:15; increasing in the times of the patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, and Jacob, and in which and to whom were various displays of Gospel light and grace; to the time of the giving of the law by Moses, when the church might be said to be

fair as the moon; which, though it receives its light from the sun, yet splendour and brightness are ascribed to it, Job 31:26; and, by other writers (t), is represented as fair and beautiful; and the beautiful form of persons is expressed by it (u): and very fitly is the state of the church under the law signified by the moon, by which the ceremonial law seems intended, in Revelation 12:1; that lying much in the observation of new moons, by the which the several festivals under the law were regulated; and which law gave light in the night of Jewish darkness, into the person, offices, and grace of Christ; and though it was imperfect, variable, waxed old, and at length vanished away, yet the church under it was "fair"; there being a beauty and amiableness in the worship of that dispensation, Psalm 27:4. The next clause, "clear as the sun", may describe the church under the Gospel dispensation; when the "sun of righteousness" arose, and made the famous Gospel day; when the shadows of the old law fled away, Christ, the substance, being come; when there were more light and knowledge, and a clear discerning of spiritual and evangelic things: and, in all those periods, the church was "terrible as an army with banners"; to her enemies, being in a militant state; See Gill on Sol 6:4. The whole of this may be applied to particular believers; who, at first conversion, "look forth as the morning", their light being small, but increasing; and, as to their sanctification, are "fair as the moon", having their spots and imperfections, and deriving all their light, grace, and holiness, from Christ; and, as to their justification,

clear as the sun, being clothed with Christ, the sun of righteousness, Revelation 12:1; and so all fair and without spot;

and terrible as an army with banners, fighting the good fight of faith, under the banners of Christ, against all spiritual enemies.

(n) Theocrit. Idyll. 18. v. 26. (o) , Iliad. 1. v. 477. & passim. (p) , Iliad. 8, v. 1. & 19. v. 1.((q) Iliad. 18. v. 255. (r) Odyss. 5. v. 390. (s) Odyss. 15. v. 56, 250. (t) "Tanto formosis, formosior omnibus illa est", Ovid. Leander Heroni, v. 73. "Pulchrior tanto tua forma lucet", Senecae Hippolylus, Acts 2. chorus, v. 740. (u) Vid. Barthii Animadv. ad Claudian. de Nupt. Honor. v. 243.