THOU HAST DOVES’ EYES WITHIN THY LOCKS: THY HAIR IS AS A FLOCK OF GOATS

Three times in this little Song there are references to the eyes of the dove. Twice the Beloved uses the simile when describing the beauty of His bride, 1. 15; 4. 1, and once the bride will employ the same imagery when speaking of her Beloved, 5. 12. It is the lan­guage of Oriental symbolism conveying several delightful features. Here, in His bride, the Beloved sees the gentleness and innocence, the simplicity, sincerity and purity which men associ­ate with the dove and which may have especially been seen in the large tender eyes of the Syrian dove. Perhaps too, there is a suggestion of a lovely constancy, for it is believed that the dove has a single vision, seeing only the object of its attention. How beautiful that the eyes of His bride should have Christ only in focus, seeing only Him and living for Him in that dove-like ten­derness which is characteristic of Him whom she loves. She looks through her veil with the eyes of one who is harmless and guileless just like her Beloved, living as He did in an unclean defiled world.

He now remarks upon the beauty of her hair, which is, of course, the woman’s glory, 1 Cor. 11. 15. The picture is of a flock of goats upon the hillside with the sun shining on their black silken coats. Coming down that hillside such a flock would be so suggestive of her flowing black tresses. The expositor Albert Barnes expresses it like this, ‘The point of comparison seems to be the multitudinousness of the flocks on the verdant slopes of the rich pasture-lands’. The mountains of Gilead were east of Jordan and on the wooded slopes flocks of goats would often be seen reposing. Their black hair, silken and glistening in the morning sun, was a particularly beautiful sight. Yet another writes, ‘A flock of goats encamped on a mountain, (rising up, to one looking from a distance, as in a steep slope, and almost per­pendicularly), and as if hanging down lengthwise on its sides, presents a lovely view adorning the landscape. Solomon likens to this the appearance of the locks of his beloved, which hang down over her shoulders’, Delitzsch. So, in her eyes and in her hair her Beloved sees only beauty.