Come, let us take our fill of love - נרוה דדים nirveh dodim, "Let us revel in the breasts;" and then it is added, "Let us solace ourselves with loves," נתעלסה באהבים nithallesah boohabim; "let us gratify each other with loves, with the utmost delights." This does not half express the original; but I forbear. The speech shows the brazen face of this woman, well translated by the Vulgate, "Veni, inebriemur uberibus; et fruamur cupidinis amplexibus." And the Septuagint has expressed the spirit of it: Ελθε, και απολαυσωμεν φιλιας - δευρο, και εγκυλισθωμεν ερωτι. "Veni, et fruamur amicitia - Veni, et colluctemur cupidine." Though varied in the words, all the versions have expressed the same thing. In the old MS. Bible, the speech of this woman is as follows: I have arrayed with cordis my litil bed, and spred with peyntid tapetis of Egipt: I have springid my ligginge place with mirre and aloes and calelcum, and be we inwardly drunken with Tetis, and use we the coveytied clippingis to the tyme that the dai wax light. The original itself is too gross to be literally translated; but quite in character as coming from the mouth of an abandoned woman.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning,.... Taking him by the hand, and pulling him along, she says, "come"; let us not stand here in the streets, but let us go within, and after supper to bed; and there enjoy ourselves, till "inebriated" with love, as the word (w) signifies: so the poet (x) speaks of "ebrios ocellos", "eyes drunk", that is, with love; and so continue till the morning light, the night being the fittest season for those works of darkness: this expresses the insatiableness of her lust;

let us solace ourselves with loves; mutual love, not lawful, but criminal; more properly lusts; denoting the abundance of it, and the pleasure promised in it, which is very short lived, and bitterness in the end.

(w) "inebriemur", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens. (x) Catullus de Acme, Ephesians 43. c. 11.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

18-20. There is no fear of discovery.

7:6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.