2:5 raisins . . . apples. Raisins or “raisin cakes” are associated elsewhere in the Old Testament with religious rites, sometimes even in a pagan context (2 Sam. 6:19; Hos. 3:1). This has led some commentators to suppose that the Song of Solomon originated as the script of a pagan fertility rite involving ritual sex (cf. Hos. 4:11–14). But the lovemaking in the Song has no obvious religious dimension. The raisins here, like the apples, are simple aphrodisiacs. The girl calls for raisins and apples to renew her strength.