Song of Solomon 3:6

Whois this that cometh out In the Heb. as it stands, thisis feminine, and the participles coming upand perfumedare in agreement with it. Hence many hold that the verse is spoken of a woman, either of a princess whom Solomon, even in the midst of his wooing of the Shulammite, is about to marry, or of the Shulammite, who is seen approaching Jerusalem with Solomon as her husband in a bridal procession. But it need not necessarily be so. Thismay be taken as neuter, the fem. often representing the neuter, as there is no special neuter form in Heb. In that case the translation here would be literally -Who is that which cometh up?" This is strictly parallel to Esau's question to Jacob, Genesis 33:8, "Who is all this camp?" i.e. -Who are the human beings in it?" (Cp. Davidson, Heb. Synt. § 8, R. 1, and Ewald, Heb. Synt. E. T. p. 196.) This view is more in accord with the following words: for, obviously, the procession is too remote to permit of the spectators who speak here knowing that any lady in it is perfumed with myrrh, &c. It must, therefore, be the thing seen, not any person, which is perfumed. The idea is that something surrounded with incense, naturally supposed to be perfumed, is approaching. "The pomp is like that of a procession before which the censer of frankincense is swung" (Del.). Song of Solomon 3:7 tells us that thisis the miṭṭâhof Solomon.

out of the wilderness i.e. from the pasture lands as distinct from the cultivated lands. This is quite unintelligible on Budde's hypothesis. Cp. Appendix ii, § 9.

like pillars of smoke This expression strengthens the view taken of the last clause. Thiswhich is like pillars of smoke cannot be a person, but must be a litter or procession which is overhung by, or surrounded with, columns of smoke. The word for columns tîmǎrôthoccurs again in the O.T. only in Joel 2:30 (Heb., 3:3). The LXX translate it by στελέχη, -trunks" of smoke, evidently connecting the word with tâmâr, -a palm tree," to which a rising column of smoke has a great resemblance. It spreads out only at the top of the column-like stem, like a palm tree above its trunk. More probably, however, it is derived from a verb yâmar= "âmar, the original meaning of which was -to rise high."

perfumed Lit. incensed, i.e. having incense burnt before it. The couch or litter, or the procession, is having perfume burnt before it, viz. myrrh and frankincense. For the former cp. ch. Song of Solomon 1:13, and for the latter Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 355. Frankincense is the gum of a tree which grows in the hill country of India, the Boswellia serrataof botanists. Probably it came to Palestine through Arabia, cp. Isaiah 60:6. The resin is obtained by simply slitting the bark.

with all powders of the merchant i.e. with all the aromatic preparations which the wandering merchants brought from foreign lands.