Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains.
The chapter closes with the bride speaking in the dark. She asks her beloved to cross the broken hills like a gazelle until morning comes — and commentators differ over whether that is longing or delay.
The day that breaks and the shadows that flee
The shadows go because the day comes, and both are still ahead. Older translations read "until the day break" — the same daybreak she waits for. One writer links the vanishing shadows to everything in Scripture that only pictured Christ.
Andrew MillerThe full assurance of His love, and the happy enjoyment of Himself by faith, greatly increase her desire for the day of His glory. Then "the shadows flee." All the symbols and shadows are fulfilled in Him, so they pass away when He appears. Now we see in a mirror dimly; then, face to face. We shall see the same Jesus then as we see now, but the dim glass will be gone. "We shall see him as he is." For Israel, the Sun of Righteousness will rise. His beams will chase away forever all the darkness of night, and all the gloom of their long, dreary winter.
The mountains of Bether
Writers tie the name to the rough ground Israel's faithful remnant must still cross — and to who walks it with them.
VariousWhile they wait for the shadows to flee, the remnant will have to go through the dark days of the great tribulation. Their road runs over rough, trackless mountains of difficulty — "the mountains of Bether." Bether means cloven, that is, full of ravines. So it may well stand for the hardships and painful trials the remnant will go through during the tribulation. But the Lord will be her refuge in her time of trouble. The gazelle or young stag is always there on the mountains of Bether. Where trouble is, there the Lord is always found, "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46).
The same ground looks different when you measure it against the animal she names. The same writer also shows how she waits on it.
Andrew MillerShe is still in the wilderness. Her trials are many. Like a country cut up by mountains and valleys, the pathway is difficult. She longs for her Beloved to come in power and glory, with the swiftness of the gazelle or the stag, on the mountains of division. What are the mountains and the valleys to the swift gazelle? They are as nothing. What are all the difficulties of Israel's full restoration to the Lord? They are as nothing. But until that moment comes, she prays to be kept in the enjoyment of His love. Faith lays hold of the word. Hope looks out for the first streak of day. Prayer asks for the present enjoyment of His gracious purpose.
"Turn, my beloved" — for now, not only for the end
She asks Him to turn back to her, not only to come at the end. One writer draws on the habit of the deer, then applies it to God's people in a dark world.
Hamilton SmithThe bride expresses the longing of her heart for other visits from the King, just as the gazelles and the young stags come down from the mountains by night to feed in the plains. So, indeed, may we welcome every occasion on which the Lord comes into the midst of His people as they pass through this dark world.
Holding back from following Him
Commentators differ on the tone of her reply. One writer hears her holding back from following Him.
after_note: DELETE
The Christian's FriendHis mind is set on winning her out of her place into His. So He calls her again and again, "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away" (vv. 10, 13). But she is not ready. Her heart is taken up more with the blessings than with the Blesser, though the blessing is Himself. Conscience tells her that something hinders the power and fruitfulness of her soul. "Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards" (v. 15); but she cannot persuade herself to follow Him. It is one thing to have the Saviour, and quite another to follow Him. "Not yet," she says, in effect — "turn, my beloved …" — but I cannot go with You yet.
From Bether to spices
The last verse of the Song repeats this call, but with two changes. One writer sets the two side by side.
The Christian's FriendWe may well echo the wish that ends the book. It is no longer, as in this verse, "Until the day breathes and the shadows flee … turn, my beloved … on the mountains." It is, "Make haste, my beloved … on the mountains of spices."
Summary
- Night. She speaks before dawn. The day has not broken, so the shadows have not gone.
- Shadows. At daybreak everything that only pictured Christ passes away. The dim glass gives way to seeing Him as He is.
- Bether. The name means cloven, ground full of ravines: the hard, broken road she must still cross before that morning.
- The gazelle. Ravines that stop a traveller are nothing to the swift one she calls for — and where trouble is, there He is.
- Spices. Here she says, "Not yet"; at the end of the book she says, "Make haste" — the same call, moved from the mountains of division to the mountains of spices.