Song of Solomon 5:6
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
I opened to my beloved,.... Which was what he desired, and was done in virtue of his putting in his hand by the hole of the door; or by the exertion of his efficacious grace, working in her both to will and to do, without which it would not have been done; namely, her heart dilated, the desires and affections of her soul enlarged towards Christ, and every grace drawn forth and exercised on him; and though the heart of a believer is sometimes shut to Christ, yet when it is opened, it is only patent to him; the church thought Christ was still at the door, and might be the more confirmed in it by what she found on the handles of the lock; but lo her mistake,
but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: a sad disappointment this! she expected to have seen him, and been received in his arms and embraced in his bosom; but instead of that, he was gone out of sight and hearing: this withdrawing was to chastise her for her former carriage, and to show her more the evil of her sin, and his resentment of it; to try the truth and strength of her grace to inflame her love the more, and sharpen her desires after his presence, to prize it more when she had it, and be careful not to lose it: her using two words of the same import, "he turned himself" {h}, and was gone, signifies that he was really gone, and not in her imagination only; and that he was gone suddenly, at an unawares, and, as she might fear, would never return; and these words being without a copulative, "had withdrawn himself, he was gone", show her haste in speaking, the confusion she was in, thee strength of her passion, the greatness of her disappointment and sorrow; it is as if she was represented wringing her hands and crying, He is gone, he is gone, he is gone;
my soul failed when he spake; or "went out" {i}; not out of her body, but she fell into a swoon, and was as one dead; for a while; and this was "at" or "through his word" {k}, as it may be rendered; through what he said when he turned about and departed, expressing his resentment at her behavior; or rather at the remembrance of his kind and tender language he used when he first called her to arise, "saying, open to me, my sister, my spouse", &c. Song of Solomon 5:2; and when she called to mind how sadly she had slighted and neglected him, it cut her to the heart, and threw her into this fainting fit;
I sought him, but I could not find him; In the public ordinances of his house; See Gill on "Song of Solomon 3:2";
I called him, but he gave me no answer; called him by his name as she went along the streets and broad ways of the city, where she supposed he might be; praying aloud, and most earnestly and fervently, that he would return to her; but had no answer, at least not immediately, and thus be treated her in the same manner she had treated him; he had called to her and she disregarded him, and now she calls to him, and he takes no notice of her; but this was not in a way of vindictive wrath and punishment, as in Proverbs 1:24; but of chastisement and correction.
{h} qmx "verteret se", Pagninus; "circuerat", Montanus.
{i} hauy exhlyen, Sept. "egressa est", Pagninus, Montanus, Marckius.
{k} wrbdb en logw autou, Sept. "in loquela ejus", Marckius.