Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me — Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
The Bridegroom is speaking here, and His words surprise us: the king asks His bride to look away, because her look is more than He can bear. Why is that a compliment, and why does He then repeat praise He had given her once before?
Spoken to one who had wandered
This praise does not fall on a bride who stayed close. She had wandered and come back, and the Bridegroom's first move is to repeat His old words.
Hamilton SmithIn spite of her wanderings the thoughts of the Bridegroom towards His bride have not changed. The same pictures describe her perfections as in an earlier song (4:1-3). This assures her that there is no change in His heart.
Why repeat old words instead of saying something new? One writer answers by pointing to what happened in between.
Andrew MillerSince the Bridegroom used these same words to His bride in the fourth chapter, she has wandered and returned. By repeating to her what He said before, He assures her heart that her beauty in His sight is unspoiled. He says nothing about her having been away from Him. Yet these expressions of His unchanged admiration will now take a deeper hold on her heart than before. Their value is increased sevenfold because of the circumstances in which He repeats them. No words could have reassured her heart like these.
Eyes that overwhelm Him
Asking her to turn her eyes away is not a rebuke. Something in her look has changed.
Elberfelder CommentaryHer eyes are at last fully fixed upon Him who has become the object of her heart. He reads in her eyes the deep affection of her heart and is overcome by it. There is no beauty so captivating, so delightful to His heart as this.
Commentators also read the words in a wider setting. Then it is not one heart only, but a whole people gathered as one, whose glory overwhelms Him.
Andrew MillerThe king acknowledges that the effect of the glory of His beloved people, joined in one, overwhelms Him. "Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me." This is wonderful! Who can understand it? To understand it even in part we must know Jesus Himself. No heart enters into the blessing and joy of others like His. It relieves His heart to bless the needy.
Hair like a flock of goats
The praise then turns to a picture of her hair. Commentators find three things in it: the hair itself, the goats, and Mount Gilead.
Elberfelder CommentaryThe woman's long hair is God-given and is therefore her special glory (1 Cor. 11:15). It is symbolic of submission and dependence. The goat's nature is to climb to the highest ground, and Mount Gilead is famous for its rich pastures. Putting these three things together we get this truth. Submission and dependence upon the Lord bring you onto the highest spiritual ground. There you find those rich pastures that fully satisfy all the hunger and longings of the soul.
Teeth like washed sheep
Teeth are for eating, and the flock they are compared to is both washed and fruitful. Those three things are read together.
Elberfelder CommentaryWe must feed upon Christ, the bread of heaven, for life, nourishment and strength (John 6:27-28). But feeding on Christ is always coupled with cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit by the water of the Word, and laying aside hatred, anger and the like for that Christ-like spirit of gentleness and meekness, and bearing fruit in obedience to His will.
The city He weeps over
Commentators connect this praise with Jerusalem and her people. That makes it harder to believe, not easier.
William KellyWhat a wonderful thought — the Lord finding such attraction in Jerusalem! That is the Jerusalem that cost Him so many tears, the Jerusalem that has slandered Him from that day to this. For Jerusalem is still the same guilty, Christ-rejecting Jerusalem it always was. But it will not always be so. The Lord will make these words true, and give Jerusalem to believe in the day that is coming.
Summary
- Unchanged. She had wandered; the same words of praise meet her on return, proof that "there is no change in His heart."
- Unspoken. He never mentions the absence. That silence, with the same praise repeated, takes the deeper hold on her heart.
- Unbearable. Her eyes are now fixed on Him alone, and that look overwhelms Him — the one beauty His heart delights in most.
- Upward. The picture spells out that beauty: her hair stands for submission and dependence, and that path carries the soul to the highest ground and the richest pasture.
- Unfinished. Commentators apply this to Jerusalem, still guilty and rejecting Him. The Lord will make the words true in the day that is coming.