Song of Solomon 2:15

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Take	אֶֽחֱזוּ 'e.che.zu-	H270	to seize (often with the accessory idea of holding in p… · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
foxes	שֽׁוּעָלִ֔ים shu.'a.Lim	H7776	a jackal (as a burrower) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
little	קְטַנִּ֖ים ke.ta.Nim	H6996	abbreviated · adjective, masculine plural absolute
foxes	שֽׁוּעָלִ֥ים shu.'a.Lim	H7776	a jackal (as a burrower) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
spoil	מְחַבְּלִ֣ים me.cha.be.Lim	H2254	to wind tightly (as a rope) · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
vines	כְּרָמִ֑ים ke.ra.Mim	H3754	a garden or vineyard · noun, common masculine plural absolute
vines	וּכְרָמֵ֖ינוּ u.khe.ra.Mei.nu	H3754	a garden or vineyard · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
grapes	סְמָדַֽר se.ma.Dar	H5563	a vine blossom · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Luke 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall b…
2 Peter 2:1-3 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable he…
Song of Solomon 7:12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: ther…
Psalms 80:13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Ezekiel 13:4-16 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
Song of Solomon 2:13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away…
Revelation 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

John Gill on Song of Solomon 2:15

Take us the foxes,.... Of which there were great numbers in Judea; see Judges 15:4; these words are directed not to angels, nor to civil magistrates, but to ministers of the word; but whether the words of Christ, or the church, is not easy to determine; some think they are the words of the church, who had hitherto been relating what Christ said to her, and who, having neglected her vineyard, Sol 1:6; and now stirred up by Christ to a greater care of it, expresses her concern for its flourishing; and therefore calls upon her attendants and companions, to assist in taking and destroying those which were harmful to it: but rather they seem to be the words of Christ continued; since they not onl…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 2:15

The foxes may represent threats to the relationship. These threats are not identified; they could be the normal ups and downs of love, rival suitors, or anything else that might keep the couple from enjoying one another. • In the dramatic view, the woman’s responsibilities as a vinedresser are still in mind. She is probably instructing the vinedressers who cared for her vineyard and received two hundred pieces of silver from her in 8:12. The alarm about catching the foxes may be understood in terms of the woman’s personal interest in maintaining the value of her vineyards; eventually, she needs to pay Solomon the lease. If the foxes’ hole-digging ruins the grapevines, she will be further in…

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Rashi on Song of Solomon 2:15

Seize for us the foxes. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, heard their voice; He commanded the sea, and it washed them away. That is [the meaning of], “Seize for us the foxes,” [i.e.,] the little one with the big ones, for even the [Egyptian] little ones were destroying the vineyards,35I.e., the Bnei Yisroel. when our vineyards were still “with tender grapes,” when the grapes were tiny.36I.e., the children were young. When a Jewish woman would give birth to a male and hide him, the Egyptians would enter their homes and search for the males, but the baby was hidden, and he was a year or two old. They would bring a baby from an Egyptian home; the Egyptian baby would speak, and the Jewish baby would…

The Church Fathers

[Those] who spoil the church of God, as the "little foxes do the vineyard," we exhort you to avoid, lest you lay traps for your own souls. "For he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but he that walks with the foolish shall be known."
— Nilus of Sinai, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6:3.18

This animal, which is very shrewd with respect to deceit and craftiness, represents the Jews, Gentiles and heretics, who are always plotting against the church of God, and, as it were, continuously making a racket with their babbling voices. Concerning them the command is given to the guardians of the church: "Catch for us the tiny foxes which are wrecking the vineyards."
— Bede, Commentary on Acts 19:14

It calls these foxes "little" because there are also greater ones. Indeed, the ruling powers of the world are greater at raging than the fallacies of the heretics are at seducing. They are both equally evil, but their respective powers to punish are unequal, for the heretic coaxes to destroy, but the Gentile rages to conquer, the former being peacefully deceptive and the latter being cruel in persecution. But the Lord commands that both receive appropriate dispositions from the keepers of the vineyards, that is, from the leaders of the churches.
— Gregory of Elvira, EXPLANATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS 4:25

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fox — (Heb. shu’al, a name derived from its digging or burrowing under ground), the Vulpes thaleb, or Syrian fox, the only species of this animal indigenous to Palestine. It burrows, is silent and solitary…
Grape — The fruit of the vine, which was extensively cultivated in Palestine. Grapes are spoken of as “tender” (Cant. 2:13, 15), “unripe” (Job 15:33), “sour” (Isa. 18:5), “wild” (Isa. 5:2, 4). (See Rev.…
Flagon · General references — General references
Fox · General references — General references
Fox, The · Destructive to vines — Destructive to vines
Sin · .Little sins — .Little sins
Vine, The · Foxes destructive to — Foxes destructive to

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).