Song of Solomon 3:9
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. The word translated chariot is only used in this place; some render it a bride chamber {u}; others a nuptial bed {w}, such as is carried from place to place; it is used in the Misnah {x} for the nuptial, bed, or open chariot, in which the bride was carried from her father's house to her husband's. The Septuagint render it by foreion, a word near in sound to that in the Hebrew text, and was the "lectica" of the ancients, somewhat like our "sedan"; some of which were adorned with gold and precious stones, and had silver feet {y}, or pillars, as follows: it seems upon the whole to be the nuptial chariot in which, according to Pausanias {z}, three only were carried, the bride, who sat in the middle, then the bridegroom, and then the friend of the bridegroom: something of this kind is the "palki" or "palanquin" of the Indians, in which the bride and bridegroom are carried on the day of marriage on four men's shoulders {a}: and by this "chariot" may be meant either the human nature of Christ, in which he descended and ascended to heaven; or his church, in which he shows himself to his people in his ordinances, where he rides in triumph, conquering and to conquer, by his Spirit and grace, in his word; or the covenant of grace, in which Christ shows the freeness and sovereignty of his love in being the Mediator, surety, and messenger of it; and in which his people are bore up and supported under and carried through many trials and exercises in this life, and are brought triumphantly to heaven; or rather the Gospel, and the ministration of it, in which Christ shows himself as in a chariot, in the glory of his person, offices, grace, and love; in this he is carried up and down in the world, Acts 9:15; and by it is conveyed to the souls of men; and in it he triumphs over his enemies, and causes his ministers to triumph also: and he is the subject, sum, and substance of it, and the alone author of it; for he is the Solomon here spoken of that made it; it is not a device of men's, but a revelation of his, and therefore called "the Gospel of Christ"; and which he gives to men to preach, a commission to preach it, and qualifications for it: and this he does "for himself", to set forth the glories of his person and office, to display the riches of his grace, and to show himself to be the only way of salvation to host sinners: and this chariot being said to be "of the wood of Lebanon", cedar, which is both incorruptible and of a good smell; may denote the uncorruptness of the Gospel, as dispensed by faithful ministers, and the continuance and duration of it, notwithstanding the efforts of men and devils to the contrary; and the acceptableness of it to the saints, to whom is the savour of life unto life; and it being a nuptial chariot that seems designed, it agrees with the Gospel, in the ministry of which souls are brought to Christ, and espoused as a chaste virgin to him, 2 Corinthians 11:2.
{u} Nwyrpa "thalamum sponsarum", Montanus.
{w} So Schmidt, Marckius, David de Pomis, Kimchi in Sopher Shorash. rad. hrp & Ben Melech in loc.
{x} Sotah, c. 9. s. 14. & Jarchi in ibid.
{y} Vid. Alstorph. de Lecticis Veter. c. 3.
{z} Vid. Suidam in voce zeugov.
{a} Agreement of Customs between the East Indians and Jews, artic. 17. p. 68.