Song of Solomon 2:5

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Stay	סַמְּכ֙וּנִי֙ sa.me.Khu.ni	H5564	to prop (literally or figuratively) · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix
flagons	בָּֽאֲשִׁישׁ֔וֹת ba.'a.shi.Shot	H809	something closely pressed together · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
comfort	רַפְּד֖וּנִי ra.pe.Du.ni	H7502	to spread (a bed) · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix
apples	בַּתַּפּוּחִ֑ים ba.ta.pu.Chim	H8598	an apple (from its fragrance) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
sick	חוֹלַ֥ת cho.Lat	H2470	properly · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular construct
love	אַהֲבָ֖ה 'a.ha.Vah	H160	affection (in a good or a bad sense) · noun, common feminine 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

Song of Solomon 5:8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
2 Samuel 6:19 And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and…
Hosea 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the chil…
2 Samuel 13:1-2 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
Psalms 4:6-7 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
Psalms 42:1-2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalms 63:1-3 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no wa…
Psalms 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

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 2:5

Stay me with flagons,.... Of wine, which is a supporter of the animal spirits (w). The church was now in a house of wine, where was plenty of it; even of the love of Christ, compared to wine, and preferred unto it, Sol 1:2; the church though she had had large discoveries of it, desired more; and such that have once tasted of this love are eagerly desirous of it, and cannot be satisfied until they have their fill of it in heaven: the flagons, being vessels in which wine is put, and from thence poured out, may signify the word and ordinances, in which the love of Christ is displayed and manifested; the church desires she might be stayed and supported hereby, while she was attending on Christ i…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 2:5-6

The woman’s love is intense, his love overwhelming. • If the Song is an anthology, the couple can be seen as married, and lovemaking is seen as so physically exhausting that she grows faint and calls for the sustenance of raisin cakes and apples. These foods were considered aphrodisiacs in the ancient Near East. • Strengthen me: She now depends on him to revive her with the fruit of the earlier image—he is the apple tree, so he can provide apples for her renewed strength. • His left arm is under my head: He tenderly supports her with his embrace as they lie together (see also 8:3).

Rashi on Song of Solomon 2:5

Sustain me. Now, as is the manner of [treating] the sick, with flagons of grape wine or with cakes of pure flour. Refresh my bed. Spread my bed around me with apples for a good fragrance, in the manner of [treating] the sick, for I am sick for His love, for I thirst for Him here in my exile. “רְפִידָה” is an expression of a couch, as in, “where he lies יִרְפַּד on jagged rocks as if upon mud.”8Iyov 41:22.

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

In the Song of Songs it is said, "I am wounded with love"; that is, of being in love, of being inflamed with passion, of sighing for the bridegroom, from whom she received the arrow of the Word.
— Augustine of Hippo, EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 45:14

The love of eternal life sprouts from the love of knowledge, as does the ability to endure persecution from the love of eternal life, and the virtue of fortitude from persecution, and the perfected glory of martyrdom from fortitude.
— Aponius, EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 3:44

The church proclaims in the Song of Songs, "I am wounded by love." So the holy people pray to be pierced by the fear of the Lord, so that by dying they may live, whereas earlier by living they were dying.
— Cassiodorus, EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 119:120

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

Apple Tree, Apple — (Heb. tappuach). Mention of the apple tree occurs in the Authorized Version in (Song of Solomon 2:3; 8:5) and Joel 1:12 The fruit of this tree is alluded to in (Proverbs 25:11) and Song 2:5; 7:8 It…
Flagon — Heb. ashishah, (2 Sam. 6:19; 1 Chr. 16:3; Cant. 2:5; Hos. 3:1), meaning properly “a cake of pressed raisins.” “Flagons of wine” of the Authorized Version should be, as in the Revised Version, “cakes…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Apple · A fruit — A fruit
B · Unclean: Fox — Unclean: Fox
Love To Christ · Should be: Ardent — Should be: Ardent
Wine · Characterised as: Strengthening — Characterised as: Strengthening

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).