Song of Solomon 2:11

The winter is past— One part of the winter is distinguished from the rest of it by the people of the East, in the latitude in which Solomon lived, on account of the severity of the cold. At Aleppo it lasts about forty days, and is called by the natives maurbanie. I would propose it to the consideration of the learned, whether the word סתיו setaiv, here used and translated winter, may not be understood to mean what the Aleppines express by the term maurbanie. It occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament; and another word is used for the rainy part of the year in general. If this thought be admitted, it will greatly illustrate, in a critical sense, the words of the bridegroom, Lo! the winter is past; the rain is over, is gone: for then the last clause will not be explanatory of the first, and signify that the moist part of the year was entirely past; with which Dr. Russell assures us all pleasantness withdraws at Aleppo;—but the words will import, "The maurbanie is past and over; the weather become agreeably warm; the rain too has just ceased, and consequently has left us the prospect of several days of serenity and undisturbed pleasantness." The weather of Judaea was, in this respect, I presume, like that at Algiers; where, after two or three days of rain, there is usually, according to Dr. Shaw, a week, a fortnight, or more, of fair and good weather. Of such a sort of cessation of rain alone, the bridegroom, methinks, is here to be understood, in the literal sense, and not of the absolute termination of the rainy season, and the summer-drought's being come on; and if so, what can the time that was past mean, but the maurbanie? Indeed Dr. Russell, in giving us an account of the excursions of the English merchants at Aleppo, has undesignedly furnished us with a good comment on this and the two following verses. "These gentlemen (it seems) dined abroad under a tent, in spring and autumn, on Saturdays, and often on Wednesdays: they do the same during the good weather in winter; but they live at the garden, in April and part of May. In the heat of the summer they dine at the gardens, instead of under the tent; that is to say, I suppose once or twice a week they dine at the gardens, as once or twice a week they dine under a tent in autumn and spring." The cold weather is not supposed, according to the letter of the text, to have been long over, since it is distinctly mentioned; and the Aleppines make these excursions very early: the narcissus flowers during the whole of the maurbanie, and hyacinths and violets flower also at least before it is quite over. The appearing of flowers then does not mean the appearing of the first and earliest flowers, but must rather be understood of the earth's being covered with them; which at Aleppo is not till after the middle of February, a small crane's-bill, appearing on the banks of the river there about the middle of February, quickly after which comes a profusion of flowers. The nightingales too, which are there in abundance, not only afford much pleasure by their songs in the gardens, but are also kept tame in the houses, and let out at a small rate, to divert such as choose it in the city: so that no entertainments are made in the spring without a concert of these birds. No wonder then that Solomon makes the bridegroom speak of the singing of birds; and it teaches us what these birds are, which are expressly distinguished from turtle-doves, and are here used by the Holy Spirit of God to represent much more noble concerts. It would be disparaging the reader's taste to point out to him the beauty and elegance of this whole address.