VI. (1-3) WHITHER IS THY BELOVED GONE... By a playful turn the poet heightens the description of the lover’s beauty by the impression supposed to be produced on the imaginary bystanders to whom the picture has been exhibited. They express a desire to share the pleasures of his company with the heroi... [ Continue Reading ]
BEAUTIFUL... AS TIRZAH. — There is no sufficient reason for the employment of Tirzah side by side with Jerusalem in this comparison but the fact that they were both capitals, the one of the northern, the other of the southern kingdom. This fixes the date of the composition of the poem within certain... [ Continue Reading ]
OVERCOME. — Marg., _puffed up;_ Heb. _hirîbunî,_ from the verb _rahab,_ a word whose root-idea seems to be to show spirit against oppression or prejudice. (See Isaiah 3:5; Proverbs 6:3.) The _Hiphil_ therefore = make me spirited, or bold. (Comp. Psalms 138:3.) The LXX. and Vulg., however, followed b... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE ARE THREESCORE QUEENS. — Presumably a description of Solomon’s harem (from comp. with Song of Solomon 8:11), though the numbers are far more sober than in 1 Kings 11:3. Probably the latter marks a later form of the traditions of the grand scale on which everything at the court of the monarch w... [ Continue Reading ]
MY DOVE... IS BUT ONE. — “While the monarch’s loves are so many, _one_ is mine, my dove, my perfect one: _one,_ the delight of her mother, the darling of her who bore her.” It is impossible not to see in this a eulogy on monogamy, which, in practice, seems always to have been the rule among the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS SHE. — This verse is supposed to be spoken by the admiring ladies. The paragraph mark in the English Version should rather be at the beginning of the next verse. (Comp. — “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun,” &c_ — Romeo... [ Continue Reading ]
(11-13) I WENT DOWN INTO THE GARDEN... — For a discussion on this obscure passage in its entirety, see _Excursus_ III. (11) NUTS. — Heb. _egôz;_ only here. (Comp. Arabic _ghaus_ = the walnut, which is at present extensively cultivated in Palestine.) FRUITS. — Heb. _ebi=green_ shoots; LXX. ἐν γεννή... [ Continue Reading ]