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.

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