*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
My beloved is white and ruddy - Compare 1-Samuel 16:12; Daniel 7:9. The complexion most admired in youth. Jewish interpreters remark that he who is elsewhere called "the Ancient of Days" is here described as the Ever-Young. "White in His virgin-purity," says Jerome, "and ruddy in His Passion."
The chiefest among ten thousand - literally, "a bannered one among a myriad;" hence one signalized, a leader of ten thousand warriors.
My beloved is white and ruddy - Red and white, properly mixed, are essential to a fine complexion; and this is what is intimated: he has the finest complexion among ten thousand persons; not one in that number is equal to him. Literally, "He bears the standard among ten thousand men;" or "He is one before whom a standard is borne," i.e., he is captain or chief of the whole.
My beloved is white and ruddy,.... This, and the following verses, contain the church's answer to the question of the daughters; she first gives a general description of her beloved, and then descends to particulars: the description of him in general is, that he is "white and ruddy"; having the whiteness of the lily, and the redness of the rose, Song 2:1; which make a perfect beauty. Some understand this of the two natures in Christ, divine and human; with respect to his divine nature, "white", expressive of his simplicity, purity and holiness; which colour, Cicero says (r), is chiefly becoming God, it being simple, and having no mixture and composition in it: with respect to his human nature, "red", being a partaker of the same flesh and blood with his people. Others, only of the human nature; "white" denoting the purity and holiness of it, being without either original or actual sin; "red", or "ruddy", his bloody sufferings in it for the sins of his people. But it may denote, in general, his fairness, beauty, and glory; being, as a divine Person, the brightness of his Father's glory; as man; fairer than the children of men; as the Mediator, full of grace and truth; and in all his offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King, and in all the relations he stands in to his, as Father, Husband, Brother, and Friend, he appears most lovely and amiable;
the chiefest among ten thousand; whether angels or men; he is the Creator of angels, the object of their worship; and has a more excellent name and nature than they, to whom they are subject, and are ministering spirits; he is superior to men, good and bad, high and low; Lord of all, King of kings, and Head of saints, and has the pre-eminence over all creatures. The Septuagint version is, "chosen out of" or "from ten thousand"; Christ, as man, is chosen of God, from among the myriads of the individuals of human nature, to union with the divine Word, or Son of God; see Psalm 89:19; as God-man and Mediator, to be the alone Saviour and Redeemer of his people; to be the Head of the body, the church; and to be the Judge of quick and dead; and he is chosen by sensible sinners to be the object of their love; to be their only Saviour; and to be their Ruler and Governor, whose laws, commands, and ordinances, they choose to obey; see Psalm 73:24; The words may be rendered, "the standard bearer", or "one standarded by" or "over ten thousand" (s); the church is militant, and has many enemies; in the name of the Lord, she sets up her banners against them, and the banner over her is the "love" of Christ, Song 2:4; and he is the standard bearer, who has a multitude of angels and saints under his standard; and how stately and majestic does he look, and what a noble sight is it to see him bearing the standard before such a company! Revelation 7:9. Or the sense is, Christ is a more excellent standard bearer than all others (t); there may be ten thousand persons that carry a flag, but none to be compared with him, for comeliness, strength, and courage: or he is lifted up, as a standard, above others, angels and men; as he was upon the cross, and now, in the ministry of the word, that souls may gather unto him, and enlist themselves in his service; see Isaiah 11:10.
(r) De Legibus, l. 2. (s) "vexillatus a decem millibus", Montanus; "sub signis habens exercitum decem millium", Tigurine version. (t) "Insignis prae decem millibus", Pagninus, so Cocceius, Marckius.
(1-Peter 3:15).
white and ruddy--health and beauty. So David (equivalent to beloved), His forefather after the flesh, and type (1-Samuel 17:42). "The Lamb" is at once His nuptial and sacrificial name (1-Peter 1:19; Revelation 19:7), characterized by white and red; white, His spotless manhood (Revelation 1:14). The Hebrew for white is properly "illuminated by the sun," white as the light" (compare Matthew 17:2); red, in His blood-dyed garment as slain (Isaiah 63:1-3; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 19:13). Angels are white, not red; the blood of martyrs does not enter heaven; His alone is seen there.
chiefest--literally, "a standard bearer"; that is, as conspicuous above all others, as a standard bearer is among hosts (Psalm 45:7; Psalm 89:6; Isaiah 11:10; Isaiah 55:4; Hebrews 2:10; compare 2-Samuel 18:3; Job 33:23; Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 1:5). The chief of sinners needs the "chiefest" of Saviours.
Hereupon Shulamith describes to them who ask what her beloved is. He is the fairest of men. Everything that is glorious in the kingdom of nature, and, so far as her look extends, everything in the sphere of art, she appropriates, so as to present a picture of his external appearance. Whatever is precious, lovely, and grand, is all combined in the living beauty of his person.
(Note: Hengstenberg finds in this eulogium, on the supposition that Solomon is the author, and is the person who is here described, incomprehensible self-praise. But he does not certainly say all this immediately of himself, but puts it into the mouth of Shulamith, whose love he gained. But love idealizes; she sees him whom she loves, not as others see him, - she sees him in her own transforming light.)
She first praises the mingling of colours in the countenance of her beloved.
10 My beloved is dazzling white and ruddy,
Distinguised above ten thousand.
The verbal root צח has the primary idea of purity, i.e., freedom from disturbance and muddiness, which, in the stems springing from it, and in their manifold uses, is transferred to undisturbed health (Arab. ṣaḥḥ, cf. baria, of smoothness of the skin), a temperate stomach and clear head, but particularly to the clearness and sunny brightness of the heavens, to dazzling whiteness (צחח, Lamentations 4:7; cf. צחר), and then to parched dryness, resulting from the intense and continued rays of the sun; צח is here adj. from צחח, Lamentations 4:7, bearing almost the same relation to לבן as λαμπρός to λευκός, cogn. with lucere. אדום, R. דם, to condense, is properly dark-red, called by the Turks kuju kirmesi (from kuju, thick, close, dark), by the French rouge fonc, of the same root as דּם, the name for blood, or a thick and dark fluid. White, and indeed a dazzling white, is the colour of his flesh, and redness, deep redness, the colour of his blood tinging his flesh. Whiteness among all the race-colours is the one which best accords with the dignity of man; pure delicate whiteness is among the Caucasian races a mark of high rank, of superior training, of hereditary nobility; wherefore, Lamentations 4:7, the appearance of the nobles of Jerusalem is likened in whiteness to snow and milk, in redness to corals; and Homer, Il. iv. 141, says of Menelaus that he appeared stained with gore, "as when some woman tinges ivory with purple colour." In this mingling of white and red, this fulness of life and beauty, he is דּגוּל, distinguished above myriads. The old translators render dagul by "chosen" (Aquila, Symm., Syr., Jerome, Luther), the lxx by ἐκλελοχισμένος, e cohorte selectus; but it means "bannered" (degel, Song 2:4), as the Venet.: σεσημαιωμένος, i.e., thus distinguished, as that which is furnished with a degel, a banner, a pennon. Grtz takes dagul as the Greek σημειωτός (noted). With רבבן, as a designation of an inconceivable number, Rashi rightly compares Ezekiel 16:7. Since the "ten thousand" are here though of, not in the same manner as דגולים, the particle min is not the compar. magis quam, but, as at Genesis 3:14; Judges 5:24; Isaiah 52:14, prae, making conspicuous (cf. Virgil, Aen. v. 435, prae omnibus unum). After this praise of the bright blooming countenance, which in general distinguished the personal appearance of her beloved, so far as it was directly visible, there now follows a detailed description, beginning with his head.
White - The white may denote his pure and spotless innocency, and the ruddy colour his bloody passion.
*More commentary available at chapter level.