“Sustain me with raisins”
Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. (Song of Songs 2:5 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A simple request for a snack of raisins and fruit.
The cultural key
In English this sounds like asking for a light snack, but the Hebrew word (ashishot) means raisin cakes, dense cakes of pressed dried grapes that were a prized festal treat. They appear where celebration and abundance are in view: David hands out 'a cake of raisins' to everyone at the joyful return of the ark (2 Samuel 6:19), and Hosea links 'raisin cakes' to feasting and love (Hosea 3:1). So this is not a request for a bite to eat but for the rich, celebratory fare of love and festivity, fitting for one who is 'faint with love.' Lovesick and overwhelmed, she calls for the very delicacies that belong to feasting and romance to revive her. The pairing with apples, elsewhere a fruit of love in the Song, reinforces the mood. A modern reader pictures trail mix; the first hearer heard the festal food of celebration and desire.
Recovered meaning
'Raisins' translates ashishot, rich raisin cakes that were festal delicacies tied to celebration and love, not ordinary snack raisins. Faint with longing, she asks for the very food of feasting and romance to revive her.