Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-16

FOURTH SONG

Shulamith’s longing for her home again awakened.

Song of Solomon 5:2 to Song of Solomon 8:4

FIRST SCENE:

Shulamith and the Daughters of Jerusalem

( Song of Solomon 5:2 to Song of Solomon 6:3)

Shulamith (relating a dream).

2 I¹ was sleeping, but my heart was waking²—

Hark!³ my beloved is knocking:

‘Open⁴ to me, my sister,

my dear, my dove, my perfect;⁵

for⁶ my head is filled with dew,

my locks with drops of the night!’

3 “I⁷ have taken off my dress,

how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet,

how⁸ shall I soil them?”—

4My⁹ beloved extended his hand through the window,¹⁰

and I was inwardly excited¹¹ for him.

5 Up I rose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dropped with myrrh,

and my fingers with liquid myrrh,

upon the handle of the bolt.

6 I opened to my beloved,

and my beloved had turned¹² away, was gone;

my soul failed,¹³ when he spoke;¹⁴

I sought him but I did not find him,

I called him but he answered me not.

7 Found¹⁵ me then the watchmen, who go around in the city;

they struck me, wounded me,

took my veil¹⁶ off from me,

the watchmen of the walls.

8 I¹⁷ adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

if ye find my beloved—

what shall ye tell him?

“that I am sick of love.”

Daughters of Jerusalem

9 What¹⁸ is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,¹⁹

thou fairest among women?

What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved,

that thou dost adjure us thus?

Shulamith

10 My²⁰ beloved is white and ruddy,

distinguished above ten thousand.

11His head is pure gold,

his locks are hill upon hill,²¹

black as a raven.²²

12His eyes like doves by brooks of water,

bathing in milk, sitting on fulness.²³

13His cheeks like a bed of balm,

towers of spice plants;²⁴

his lips lilies,

dropping liquid myrrh.

14His hands golden rods,

encased in turquoises;²⁵

his body a figure of ivory,

veiled with sapphires.

15 His legs columns of white marble

set on bases of pure gold;

his aspect like Lebanon,

choice²⁶ as the cedars.

16 His palate²⁷ is sweets,²⁸

and he is altogether precious.²⁹

This is my beloved, and this³⁰ my friend,

ye daughters of Jerusalem.

Daughters of Jerusalem

VI:1 Whither³¹ has thy beloved gone,

thou fairest among women?

whither has thy beloved turned,

that we may seek him with thee?

Shulamith

2My³² beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of balm³³,

to feed³⁴ in the gardens

and to gather lilies.³⁵

3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,

who feeds among the lilies.

SECOND SCENE:

solomon to the same as before

( Song of Solomon 6:4 to Song of Solomon 7:6)

Solomon

4Fair³⁶ art thou, my dear, as Tirzah,

comely as Jerusalem, terrible³⁷ as bannered³⁸ hosts,

5 Turn away thine eyes from³⁹ me,

for they have taken me by storm.⁴⁰

Thy hair is as a flock of goats,

reposing on Gilead.

6 Thy teeth as a flock of sheep,⁴¹

that go up from the washing,

all of which have twins,

and there is not a bereaved one among them.

7 Like a piece of pomegranate thy cheek

from behind thy veil.—

8 There are sixty queens

and eighty concubines

and virgins without number.

9 My dove, my perfect is one,⁴²

the only one⁴³ of her mother,

the choice⁴⁴ one of her that bare her.

Daughters saw her and called her blessed,

queens and concubines and they praised her:

10 “Who⁴⁵ is this, that looks forth like the dawn,

fair as the moon, pure as the sun,

terrible as bannered hosts?”⁴⁶

Shulamith

11To⁴⁷ the nut⁴⁸ garden I went down,

to look at the shrubs of the valley,

to see whether the vine sprouted,

the pomegranates blossomed.

12 I⁴⁹ knew it not, my desire brought me

to the chariots of my people, the noble.

Daughters of Jerusalem

VII:1 Come⁵⁰ back, come back, Shulamith,

Come back, come back, that we may look upon thee.

Shulamith

What⁵¹ do you see in Shulamith?

Daughters of Jerusalem

As the dance of Mahanaim.

Solomon

2How⁵² beautiful are thy steps in the shoes, O prince’s daughter,

thy rounded⁵³ thighs are like jewels,

the work of an artist’s hands.

3Thy navel is a round bowl,⁵⁴

let not mixed wine be lacking!⁵⁵

thy body is a heap of wheat,

set⁵⁶ around with lilies.

4Thy two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

5 Thy neck like a tower of ivory,

thy eyes like pools in Heshbon

at the gate of the daughter of multitudes;

thy nose like the tower of Lebanon

which looks toward Damascus.

6 Thy head upon thee like Carmel,⁵⁷

and thy flowing locks like purple—

a king fettered by curls !⁵⁸

THIRD SCENE:

Solomon and Shulamith (alone)

( Song of Solomon 7:7 to Song of Solomon 8:4)

Solomon

7 How fair art thou and how comely,

O love,⁵⁹ among delights!⁶⁰

8 This thy stature resembles a palm tree,

and thy breasts clusters.⁶¹

9 I⁶² resolve: I will climb the palm,

will grasp its branches,⁶³

and⁶⁴ be thy breasts, please, like clusters of the vine,

and the breath of thy nose⁶⁵ like apples,

10 And thy palate⁶⁶ like the best wine.….

Shulamith (interrupting him)

—going⁶⁷ down for my beloved smoothly,⁶⁸

gliding over the lips of sleepers.

11 I am my beloved’s,

and for⁶⁹ me is his desire.——

12Come,⁷⁰ my beloved, let us go out to the country,⁷¹

lodge in the villages,

13Start early⁷² for the vineyards;

we shall see whether the vine has sprouted,

its blossoms opened,⁷³

the pomegranates flowered. …

there will I give thee my love.⁷⁴

14The mandrakes⁷⁵ give forth their odor,

and over our doors are all sorts of excellent fruit,⁷⁶

new as well as old,

(which), my beloved, I have laid up for thee.⁷⁷—

VIII:1 O⁷⁸ that thou wert as a brother of mine,

who sucked the breasts of my mother!

should I find⁷⁹ thee without I would kiss thee,

yet⁸⁰ none would despise⁸¹ me.

2 I would lead thee, bring thee to my mother’s house,

thou⁸² wouldst instruct me;

I would give thee to drink of the spiced wine,

of my pomegranate juice.

3His left hand is under my head,

and his right embraces me.⁸³—

4 I⁸⁴ adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

that ye wake not, and that ye waken not

love; till it please.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The place of the action in this new section is without doubt the same as in the foregoing act. The dialogue with the daughters of Jerusalem ( Song of Solomon 5:8-9; Song of Solomon 5:16; Song of Solomon 6:1-3; Song of Solomon 7:1); the mention of the “city” and the “keepers of its walls” in this fresh recital of a dream ( Song of Solomon 5:2-7) which reminds one of its predecessor ( Song of Solomon 3:1-5); the “garden” of Song of Solomon, to which he has gone down, Song of Solomon 6:2; finally and above all her appeal to her lover to go out with her “to the country” ( Song of Solomon 7:12) and to the house of his chosen one’s mother ( Song of Solomon 8:2), and there in the enjoyment of simple country pleasures to become to her “as a brother who had sucked the breasts of her mother” ( Song of Solomon 8:1); all this points to the king’s palace at Jerusalem as the scene, and more probably to some room in this palace, than to “contiguous grounds” or “the royal gardens,” as is thought by Delitzsch. The room in the Palace on Zion, which, according to scene 2 of the foregoing Acts, was used for the marriage feast, may very well be the one in which the whole of the present act was performed; for there is no indication any where of a change of scene, not even between Song of Solomon 7:1-2, or between Song of Solomon 5:6-7 of the same chapter (vs. Del.).—The time of the action is determined by its characteristic contents to have been some days or weeks later than the wedding festivities described in act third. For the relation of love so pure and happy at the beginning has since suffered certain checks and interruptions, which reveal themselves on the part of Shulamith at least by various symptoms of uneasiness, nay, of sadness and dejection, without her betraying, however, that she has been at all wounded or actually injured by her husband. The dream, which she tells her companions at the beginning of the section that she has very recently had in the night, begins exactly like the preceding, and runs on partly in the same way. It does not, however, end as that does in a bright and joyous manner, but with pain and fright. Seeking her beloved by night, she not only fails to find him—she is beaten and robbed by the watchmen! Her gloomy misgiving in respect to the unfaithfulness of her lover, expressed in her apprehension that she might soil her feet again, which had just been washed ( Song of Solomon 5:3, see in loc.), proves to be only too correct, and drives her therefore with an anxious and troubled heart to have it said to her lover, who has actually forsaken her for a time, “that she is sick of love”—of loving solicitude about his heart partially averted and alienated from her ( Song of Solomon 5:8)! She expresses this solicitude, it is true, not by open complaint; on the contrary, in what follows she sedulously avoids dropping any thing to the disadvantage of her husband in the hearing of the ladies of the court ( Song of Solomon 5:10-16), she apologizes for his leaving her by the harmless assumption that he may have gone “to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies,” Song of Solomon 6:2, and only inserts in her exclamation at the close an allusion indicative of painful longing in respect to the way that she wishes to be and to remain her beloved’s, viz., that he should now as formerly “feed among the lilies,” that he should be and remain a guileless, pure and simple-hearted country lover ( Song of Solomon 6:3)!—When, therefore, Solomon himself returns to her after a considerable absence, the manifestations of her partial dissatisfaction with him assume a somewhat altered form. She regards him gravely and sternly, and thus leads him in the picture of her beauty and loveliness, which, full of ecstacy, he again begins to sketch ( Song of Solomon 6:4 ff.; comp. Song of Solomon 4:1 ff.) to introduce some allusions to her “terribleness” ( Song of Solomon 6:4; Song of Solomon 6:10), as well as to the effect of the glance of her eyes ( Song of Solomon 6:5 a), which “overcome” or “dismay” him. The spirited statement of the prior rank accorded to her above all his wives and virgins, into which this description finally passes ( Song of Solomon 6:8-10), she leaves wholly unnoticed; nay, she answers it with a description of what she once did and was engaged in, when a simple country maid in happier circumstances, and with more agreeable surroundings ( Song of Solomon 6:11), and thereupon she gives him plainly enough to understand that the elevation bestowed upon her in consequence of her love “to the state-carriages of her people, the noble,” i.e. to the highest rank among the nobles of her people, had also led to her being painfully undeceived ( Song of Solomon 6:12). She even wishes to escape from the society of the voluptuous ladies of the court, which has become irksome to her, and she is induced to return and remain, not so much by their urgent entreaties and representations ( Song of Solomon 7:1) as simply and alone by her unconquerable love to Song of Solomon, whom she hopes finally to free from his corrupt surroundings and to gain wholly for herself and for the purer pleasures of her life at home.—To the new and exaggerated laudation of her charms, in which her lover hereupon indulges ( Song of Solomon 7:2 ff.) she listens in silence; as in one place at least they offend against the rules of modesty ( Song of Solomon 7:3), she deigns not to answer. Not until the other ladies had left her alone with Song of Solomon, does she venture to open her heart to him and to give free expression to her longing desire, which has been most strongly aroused, to return to her home and to have her lover changed from a voluptuous servant of sin to an innocent child of nature like herself. She does this by interrupting ( Song of Solomon 7:10) the fond language of her husband just where it had become most urgent and tender, and chiming in with what had been begun by him. With extraordinary address and delicacy she first, as it were, disarms and fetters him ( Song of Solomon 7:10-11) and then brings her desire before him with such overpowering force and urgency that refusal is impossible, and he is borne along as on the wings of the wind by her pure love, which triumphs thus over the enticements and temptations of his court ( Song of Solomon 7:12 ff.). He need not utter a word of express consent to her request; she has him completely in her power, and as he has just called himself “a king fettered by her locks” ( Song of Solomon 7:6), she but briefly refers to the fact, that his whole desire is toward her ( Song of Solomon 7:11 b), that “his left arm is under her head, and his right embraces her” ( Song of Solomon 8:3), and then leaves the scene on the arm of her beloved with that exclamation twice before uttered to the daughters of Jerusalem ( Song of Solomon 8:4), and which this time has the force of farewell advice.⁸⁵

2. The sketch here given of the inner progress of the action in the course of this act departs in several important particulars from the view of the later interpreters; but it appears to us to be the only one which corresponds with the language and the design of the poet. It is principally distinguished from the view of Delitzsch, which approaches it most nearly, by its taking the “little disturbances” and troubles in the life of the newly married pair, which this scholar also affirms, to be more serious and real, and not restricting them for instance barely to the tragic contents of that story of her dream ( Song of Solomon 5:2-7) but letting the dissatisfaction of the chaste bride with the voluptuous conduct of the king and his court come properly forward as the actual cause of the clouded horizon of their married state. Our view too repels the assumption shared by Delitzsch with several recent commentators, but destitute of proof, that the description of Shulamith’s charms contained in Song of Solomon 7:2 ff. was occasioned by a “country-dance” which she was executing before him and the ladies of the court,—a hypothesis dubious in every point of view, and upon which Shulamith’s character could scarcely be freed from moral taint (for the dance in question, the “dance of Mahanaim” can scarcely be conceived of as other than an unchaste pantomime); and from this it would be but a single step to the notion of Renan that Solomon in this passage describes the charms of a danseuse of the harem, or to the similar one of Hitzig, that the king is here “cooing round a concubine.” Finally our view differs in one point at least from that of Delitzsch in respect to the division into scenes, inasmuch as it rejects the opening of a new scene or even act after Song of Solomon 6:9 (comp. in loc., as well as the Introduction, § 2, Rem2), and consequently takes the whole to be one act with three scenes, of which the first extends to Song of Solomon 6:3; the second to Song of Solomon 7:6; and the third from that to Song of Solomon 8:4. Against the assumption of a point of division after Song of Solomon 7:6 it has often indeed been urged (see e.g.Ew, Hitz, Weissb, and Hengstenb. too) that the passage Song of Solomon 7:2-10 forms a continuous description of the beauties of the beloved, beginning with her feet and ending with her nose and palate. But with the more general exclamation Song of Solomon 7:7, “How fair and how delightful art thou, O Love, among the joys!” this description evidently assumes an entirely different character from that it had before in Song of Solomon 5:2-6, where the individual members are enumerated very much as had been done previously ( Song of Solomon 4:1-3 and Song of Solomon 6:5-7) only in inverted order, and certain comparisons are instituted with them. And what Shulamith says to her lover ( Song of Solomon 7:10 ff.) in the closest connection with the second description (or rather interrupting it and proceeding of her own motion), is of such a nature that it can scarcely be conceived of as spoken in the presence of the “daughters of Jerusalem,” who had been present before. On which account Delitzsch’s assumption that a new scene begins with Song of Solomon 7:7, does not in fact deserve so unceremonious an epithet as that of “purely gratuitous,” which Hitzig bestows upon it. The assumption of Hitz, Böttcher, Ren. and Hengstenberg that a new scene does not begin until Song of Solomon 7:12, might with equal propriety be denominated gratuitous; and so might many other modes of division which differ from ours, e.g., that followed by Ewald, Döpke, Böttcher, Hitz, Hengstenb, etc., and in general by most of the recent writers according to which a new scene opens with Song of Solomon 7:2; that of Vaih. and others (particularly the older writers) which begins this new scene with Song of Solomon 7:1; the assertion of Ewald that Song of Solomon 6:10 to Song of Solomon 7:1 is a dialogue between the ladies of the court and Shulamith which is repeated by Song of Solomon, etc. The question as to the beginning and end of the scenes in this act moreover appears to be of little consequence, inasmuch as the locality of the action, as has been before shown, does not change.⁸⁶ The only matters involved are1) an entrance at Song of Solomon 6:4 of Song of Solomon, who had not been present before and2) an exit or retirement of the chorus in the neighborhood of Song of Solomon 7:6, or Song of Solomon 7:11. And this retirement of the chorus is furthermore, as is shown by the epiphonema Song of Solomon 8:4, probably not to be conceived of as a total disappearance but simply as a withdrawal to the background, as toward the end of Act first (see above, p62).

3. Scene first. a.Shulamith’s story of her dream, Song of Solomon 5:2-8.—This like the similar passage Song of Solomon 3:1-5 must be a dream, which Shulamith had had shortly before, and which she now relates as indicative of the state of her mind. In opposition to the opinion that Shulamith is relating a real outward occurrence (Döpke, Hahn, Weissb, etc.) may be urged both the analogy of that prior passage and that such an affair is inconceivable in the history of Solomon’s love to Shulamith. It would have conflicted with decorum for that, which is narrated in vs2–5, to have actually taken place; and for the favorite of the king to have been beaten and robbed by the city night watch as is related Song of Solomon 5:7, would form the non plus ultra of historical improbability. Besides the visionary character of the experience described is indicated not only by the introductory words, when correctly explained, “I was sleeping but my heart was waking,” but also by several characteristic particulars, as Song of Solomon 5:3; Song of Solomon 5:6.

Song of Solomon 5:2. I was sleeping but my heart was waking.—Hitzig adduces a striking parallel to the thought that in a dream the heart or spirit is awake, while the rest of the person sleeps, from Cic. de divin. I. Song of Solomon 30: “jacet corpus dormientis ut mortui, viget antem et vivit animus.”Weissbagh’s objections (p211) to this parallel as inadmissible amount to nothing. Comp. F. Splittgerber, Schlaf und Tod, nebst den damit zusammenhängenden Erscheinungen des Seelenlebens (Halle, 1866), p37 ff, espec. p. Song of Solomon 43: “The soul is still in the body during sleep, though freer from it than in the state of wakefulness. It is in a condition of inner self-collection and concentration in order that it may afterwards operate with the greater force upon the course of things around it in its particular sphere of life.” And p71, “The soul sinks down in sleep to its innermost life-hearth, and loses itself there in that potential self-consciousness, which forms the proper essential quality of our spirits;—whilst in dreams it lifts itself to a comparatively higher region, that of the dawning consciousness, as it were, a region which stands considerably nearer the surface of the outward life and the daily consciousness, which moves upon it, and whose images therefore leave behind more impressive traces in our memory, which extend into our waking moments.” Hence Göschel not incorrectly remarks: “If sleep is to be conceived of as depression, (καταφορά), dreaming is elevation (αναφορά).” From this statement also it further appears why the view maintained by Grot. and Döpke, that אני ישׁנה ולבי ער denotes a condition midway between sleep and wakefulness, a semi-sleep, is superfluous; an opinion by the way, which has the meaning of the words against it, for “I slept” is not the same thing as “I was half asleep.” The heart stands here in its customary O. Test. sense of the centre and organ of the entire life of the soul, not barely for the intellectual faculties of the soul, the region of thought, as Hitzig maintains. Comp. further on Proverbs 2:10 (in this commentary.)—Hark, my beloved is knocking: Open to me, my sister, my dear, my dove, my perfect. Compared with the similar passage Song of Solomon 2:8 this fond quadruple address shows a considerable advance in the relation between the loving pair. The predicate “my fair one,” which there stands with “my dear” is here wholly wanting, and is supplied by the more intimate “my sister,” which since Shulamith’s marriage had become the common pet name, by which Solomon called her (see Song of Solomon 4:9-10; Song of Solomon 4:12, Song of Solomon 5:1). He had it is true already said “my dove” to her before their nuptials ( Song of Solomon 2:14, comp. again Song of Solomon 6:9); but “my perfect” is an entirely new appellation (comp. likewise again Song of Solomon 6:9), which it is likely was first adopted after their marriage, and by which Solomon probably designed to express her innocence and purity (תַמָּה perfect, integra) in contrast with the character of his other wives, who were not so perfect and pure. For he can scarcely have employed this appellation unmeaningly, as “my angel” among us (vs.Döpke and Hitz.), [nor can it mean as Thrupp alleges “mine perfectly or entirely.”]—For my head is filled with dew, my locks with drops of the night. The copiousness of the nightly fall of dew in Palestine is attested also by the well-known history of Gideon’s fleece, Judges 6:38; comp. also Psalm 110:3; 2 Samuel 17:12; Micah 5:6; Baruch 2:25. That Shulamith sees her lover come to her window dripping with the dew of the night, and chilly too in consequence, might seem to imply that she thought of him as a shepherd, who as ἀγραυλῶν “abiding in the field” ( Luke 2:8) had had to endure wet and cold, and hence had sought shelter in her dwelling. But to explain that representation it is sufficient to assume that the first half of her dream ( Song of Solomon 5:2-4) transports her back to her home, or in other words that now in her dream, as she had done before when awake (see Song of Solomon 1:7; Song of Solomon 2:16; Song of Solomon 4:6) she transfers her lover without more ado from the sphere of royalty to that of a shepherd’s life. That in the latter half of her dream ( Song of Solomon 5:6-7) she thinks of him again as living in the city, and herself too as wandering about in the city looking for him, is a feature of the most delicate psychological truth, which has its analogue in the story of her previous dream, Song of Solomon 3:1-4.

Song of Solomon 5:3. I have taken off my dress.כֻּתָּנְתִּי lit, “my tunic, my under garment.” She here too thinks herself back again in her former humble circumstances, where she commonly wore nothing but a tunic, χιτών (comp. Exodus 22:25 f.; 2 Samuel 13:18, also Mark 6:9,) and consequently in the night was entirely unclothed with the exception of the warm covering or upper garment (שִׂמְלָה, Ex. ibid., Genesis 9:23; Deuteronomy 22:17) under which she slept.—I have washed my feet: how shall I soil them? This is again another particular referring back to her former scanty mode of life in the country. She did not then wear the shoes, which since her elevation to be a prince’s daughter ( Song of Solomon 7:2) she was now obliged to wear: on the contrary she ordinarily went barefoot in the house and in its immediate vicinity, except in long walks in the country when she wore sandals, (comp. Amos 2:6; Amos 8:6; Deuteronomy 29:4; Joshua 9:5). Hence the feet washed before going to bed might easily get dirty again on the floor of the house. The soiling of the feet is in the religious and ethical region a symbol of moral contamination from the petty transgressions of every-day life ( John 13:10); and in the figurative language of dreams it is a well-known symbol of moral defilement reproved by the conscience and accompanied with shame, comp. (Schubert, Symbolik des Traums, 3d edit. p13, Splittberger, ibid. p128 ff.⁸⁷). It is therefore from going out to her lover, this symbol of more intimate and enduring intercourse with him, that she apprehends the soiling of her feet. Hence the objections which she makes to complying with his request, and the cold, almost indifferent, if not exactly “rude” (Del.) tone of her answer.⁸⁸

Song of Solomon 5:4. My beloved extended his hand through the window.מִן־הַחוֹר lit, from the hole,⁸⁹i.e., through the latticed window (for that is certainly what is intended here, as appears from Song of Solomon 2:9, not a mere opening in the wall as Hitz. supposes) and from it toward me.⁹⁰This gesture of extending (שׁלח) the hand in does not signify his intention to climb in through the window (Hitz.), nor his desire to gain access by forcibly breaking a hole through the wall (Hengstenberg after Ezekiel 8:7-8) [so Wordsworth], but is rather the expression of an urgent request to be admitted. The customary gesture of a petitioner is, it is true that of spreading forth his hands פָּרַשׂ כַּפָּיו ( Exodus 9:29-31, etc.) But this could not be done in the present instance on account of the smallness of the window and the darkness of the night, and would besides have been unsuitable in relation to his beloved, for everywhere else it appears only as a usage in prayer. He must here, therefore, in craving admission adopt a gesture, which would at the same time express his longing to be united with his beloved (comp. Del. and Weissb. in loc.)—And I was inwardly excited over him; lit, “my bowels⁹¹ were agitated, sounded over him”—which according to Jeremiah 31:20; Isaiah 16:11; Isaiah 63:15 is equivalent to “I felt a painful sympathy for him.” This was of course because she had let him stand out in the wet and cold. According to the reading עָלַי (so the Song of Solomon -called Erfurt Ms, see de Rossiin loc.) the feeling expressed would be regret instead of pity: “my bowels were agitated on me” (i.e. in me, or over me, on my account—comp. Hitz. and Ew. in loc.) But this slenderly attested reading appears to have crept into the text from Psalm 42:6, 12, and for this reason to deserve no attention.

Song of Solomon 5:5. Up I rose to open to my beloved.אֲנִי stands after קַמְתִּי without special emphasis, according to the more diffuse style of speaking among the people. So Hitz. no doubt correctly, whilst Weissb, is certainly far astray in asserting that Shulamith means by this אֲנִי to emphasize “her entire person in contrast with any particular parts.”⁹²And my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handle of the bolt. That is to say, as my hands touched the handle of the bolt (or lock on the door of the house) in order to shove it back and open it, they dropped, etc.עַל כַּפּוֹת הַמַּנְעוּל, whose genuineness Meier suspects without any reason, plainly shows that the dropping of myrrh did not proceed from Shulamith’s anointing herself, as she rose and dressed, (as Magn. and Weissb. imagine) [so too Burrowes], but from the fact that her lover had taken hold of the door on the outside with profusely anointed hands, and so had communicated the fluid unguent of myrrh to the bolt inside likewise.⁹³ This might have resulted from the unguent flowing in from the outer lock through the keyhole (Hitz.), or some drops of myrrh from the hand of her lover inserted through the hole above the door, might have trickled down upon the inner lock, which was directly beneath (Del). Too accurate an explanation of the affair seems inadmissible from the indefinite dreamlike character of the whole narrative. But at any rate an anointing of the outer lock of the door by the lover on purpose is not to be thought of (with Less, Döpke, Ew, Vaih, etc.) because though classic parallels⁹⁴ may be adduced for this “silent homage of love,” none can be brought from oriental antiquity.—מוֹר עוֹבֵר is not “overflowing myrrh,”⁹⁵i.e., dealt out in copious abundance (Ew.), but myrrh exuding or flowing out of itself in contrast with that which is solidified and gum-like, σμύρνα στακτή in contrast with σμ. πλαστή (Theophr. Hist. Plant. 9, 4); comp. מרֹ דְּרוֹר, Exodus 30:23, as well as above on Song of Solomon 1:13.

Song of Solomon 5:6. I opened to my beloved, comp. on5a.—And my beloved had turned away, was gone. My soul failed when he spoke. That is, before, when he was speaking to me through the window ( Song of Solomon 5:2; Song of Solomon 5:4), my breath for-sook me, my soul almost went out of me.⁹⁶ It is consequently a supplementary remark, whose principal verb, however, is not necessarily to be taken as a pluperfect (vs. Döpke).—I sought him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me. With the first of these lines comp. Song of Solomon 3:2 b; with both together Proverbs 1:28; Proverbs 8:17.

Song of Solomon 5:7. Found me then the watchmen,etc. Comp. Song of Solomon 3:3, Hitz. correctly: “In her previous dream the watchmen make no reply to her question; here without being questioned they reply by deeds.”—Took my veil off from me.רָדִיד (from רָדַד spread out, disperse, make thin) is according to Isaiah 3:23 a fine light material thrown over the person like a veil, such as was worn by noble ladies in Jerusalem; comp. Targ. on Genesis 24:65; Genesis 38:14 where רדידא represents the Heb. צָנִיף.⁹⁷נָ‍ֽשְׂאוּ מֵעָלַי certainly means not a bare “lifting” (Meier), but a forcible tearing off and taking away of this article of dress; else this expression would not form with the preceding “they struck me, wounded me,” the climax, which the poet evidently intends.—The watchmen of the walls; not the subject of the immediately preceding clause (Weissb.), but a repetition of the principal subject which stands at the beginning of the verse. In her complaint she naturally comes back to the ruffians who had done all this to her, the villainous watchmen.—“Watchmen of the walls,” whose functions relate as in this instance to the interior of the city, and who, therefore, were not appointed principally with a view to the exterior circuit walls, occur also Isaiah 62:6.

Song of Solomon 5:8. I adjure you,etc. For this expression, as well as the masc. form of address, comp. on Song of Solomon 2:7.—What shall ye tell him? So correctly Ew, Heiligstedt, Del, Hengstenb. etc.; for although מָה sometimes expresses an earnest negative or prohibition, and might therefore be synonymous with אִם in Song of Solomon 2:7; Song of Solomon 3:5, yet the translation “do not tell him that I am sick of love” (Weissb. and others) yields a less natural sense than the one given above, according to which Shulamith seeks to induce her lover to a speedy return by the intelligence of her being sick of love. And in fact she connects a charge of this purport to the daughters of Jerusalem immediately with the narrative of her dream, because this had already evidenced in various ways that she had an almost morbid longing for her lover (see especially Song of Solomon 5:4, b; Song of Solomon 5:6-7.)

4. Continuation. b. Shulamith’s description of her lover, Song of Solomon 5:9-16

Song of Solomon 5:9. What is thy beloved more than (any other) beloved, thou fairest among women? This question of the daughters of Jerusalem which serves in an admirable way to connect what precedes with the following description of the beauty of her lover, springs from the assumption readily suggested by Song of Solomon 5:2-4, that Shulamith’s lover was some other than Solomon; an assumption admitted without scruple by the voluptuous ladies of the court, in spite of their knowledge of the fact that Shulamith had shortly before given her hand to the king as her lawful husband. It is therefore a question of real ignorance and curiosity,⁹⁸ which they here address to Shulamith, not the mere show of a question with the view of leading her to the enthusiastic praise of the king who was well known to the ladies of the court and beloved by them likewise (Del.); and quite as little was it a scornful question (Döpke, Meier) or reproachful (Magn.) or one involving but a gentle reproof (Hitz.)—against these last opinions the words “fairest among women” are decisive.

Song of Solomon 5:10. My beloved is white and ruddy, distinguished above ten thousand. This general statement precedes the more detailed description of the beauties of her lover, which then follows Song of Solomon 5:11-15 in ten particulars, at the close of which ( Song of Solomon 5:16) stands another general eulogium.—The aim of the entire description is evidently to depict Song of Solomon, as one who is without blemish from head to foot, as is done 2 Samuel 14:25-26 in the case of his brother Absalom. A commendation of his fair color, or his good looks in general fitly stands at the head of the description.—צַח lit, “dazzling white;” stronger than לָבָן; an expression which may be applied to a king’s Song of Solomon, but scarcely to a simple young shepherd from the country. His face might very well be called ruddy or brownish (as 1 Samuel 16:12) but scarcely dazzling white; and it is to the face that the predicate mainly refers, as a comparison with Song of Solomon 5:14-15 shows.—To white as the fundamental color is added the blooming red. (אָדוֹם) of the cheeks and other parts of the face both here in the case of Solomon and Lamentations 4:7 in the description of the fair Nazarites of Jerusalem, which reminds one of the passage before us.—“Distinguished above ten thousand,” lit. “from ten thousand, or a myriad” (רְבָבָה), i.e., surpassing an immense number in beauty. Comp. Psalm 91:7, as well as the plur. רבבות Psalm 3:7; Deuteronomy 33:17.—דָּגוּל from דֶּגֶל “standard, banner,” as in Lat. insignis from signum, denotes one that is conspicuous as a standard amidst a host of other men, signalized, distinguished above others, and מִן is again comparative as in Song of Solomon 5:9. The expression is evidently a military one like נִגְדָּלוֹת Song of Solomon 6:4; Song of Solomon 6:10.

Song of Solomon 5:11. His head is pure gold. The comparison is not directed to the color of the face, as though this was to be represented as a reddish brown (Hitz.), but to the appearance of the head as a whole. From the combined radiance of his fresh and blooming countenance, and of his glossy black hair adorned with a golden crown, it presented to the beholder at a distance the appearance of a figure made of solid gold with a reddish lustre. כֶּתֶם. according to Gesen, Hengstenb, and others, equivalent to that which is hidden, concealed = gold that is treasured up; according to Dietrich and others from כתם “to be solid, dense,” hence massive gold; according to Hitz, Weissb, etc., equivalent to that which is reddish, of red lustre, which latter explanation is favored by Arabic parallels and by the expression נכתם Jeremiah 2:22. The adjective פָּז connected with it designates this gold as carefully refined and purified (comp. the Hoph. part. מוּפָּז with the like sense 1 Kings 10:18).—His locks are hill upon hill. תַּלְתַּלִּים may be thus explained with Del, Weissb, etc., by deriving it from תָּלַל to raise, heap up (whence תֵּלִ a hill and תָּלוּל high, Ezekiel 17:22). Commonly “palm branches,” (“flexible or curling palm branches” from תלל in the sense of “wavering or swaying to and fro”); or “pendent, hanging locks” (from תלהsuspendit—so Hengstenb.); or “pendulous clusters of grapes” (as though תלתלּים = זַלְזַלִּים, Isaiah 18:5—so Hitz.). The comparison reminds us somewhat of that with the flock of goats on Mount Gilead ( Song of Solomon 4:2; Song of Solomon 6:5); which was also designed to set forth his long curling locks piled one on another.—Black as a raven. Parallels to this simile from Arab, poets, see in Hartmann, Ideal weibl. Schönheit, I:45 f, comp. Magnus on Song of Solomon 4:1 (p85) and Döpkein loc. The latter adduces particularly two verses of Motanebbi (from J. v. Hammer, p11):

“Black as a raven and thick as midnight gloom,

Which of itself, with no hairdresser, curls.”

Song of Solomon 5:12. His eyes like doves by brooks of water. On the comparison of the eyes with doves comp. Song of Solomon 1:15. In this case it is not doves in general, but particularly doves sitting “by brooks of water” (lit. water-channels or beds) to which the eyes are likened doubtless in order to represent the lustrous brightness and the moisture of the white of the eye by a figure like that employed Song of Solomon 7:5, and to place it in fitting contrast with the iris whose varied hues resemble the plumage of the dove.—Bathing in milk, sitting on fulness. A further description of the relation of the “doves” to the “brooks of water,” i.e. of the iris (with the pupil) to the white that surrounds it. These water-brooks here appear to be filled up with milk instead of water, and the doves answering to the irides of both eyes are represented as bathing in this milk and accordingly as “sitting on” or “by fulness”—in which there is an allusion likewise to the convex form of the eye (correctly the Septuag, Vulg, Syr, and after them Hengstenb, Weissbach, etc.). מִלֵּאת, lit. “fulness,” an idea undefined in itself, is here limited by the preceding אפּיקי מים and therefore means “the fulness of the water-courses, that which fills them up” (Weissb.); and the עַל which stands before it, indicates the same sense substantially of sitting by this fulness, as is expressed by the same preposition before אפיקי מים (comp. Psalm 1:3). Others take מִלֵּאת in the sense of “setting” as of a gem (comparing מִלֻּאַת אֶבֶן, Exodus 28:17) and hence translate “enthroned in a setting” (Magn.) or “jewels finely set” (Böttch, Del, preceded by Ibn Ezra, Jarch, Rosenm, Winer). But in opposition to this may be urged both the absence of אֶבֶן after the indefinite מלאת, and the prep. עַל instead of which בְּ might rather have been expected. More correctly Cocceius and Döpke, who explain it “over the setting” i.e. “over the edge of the brook,” though still they do violence to the natural meaning of מלאת.

Song of Solomon 5:13. His cheeks like a bed of balm. The tert. compar. is not barely their delightful fragrance, but likewise the superb growth of beard upon his cheeks. Shulamith would scarcely have compared beardless cheeks with a bed of balm, i.e. a garden plot covered with plants. That she likens the two cheeks to but one bed may be explained from the fact that the beard, which likewise surrounds the chin and lips, unites them into one whole, which like the borders in many gardens has its two parallel sides (comp. Hitzig). The punctuation עֲרוּגתֹ, which the ancient versions seem to have followed (e. g, Vulg. “sicut areolæ aromatum”) and which Weissb. still prefers, accordingly appears to be less suitable than the sing. עֲרוּגַת here retained by the Masorites; whilst the plur. עֲרוּגוֹת is unquestionably the true reading in Song of Solomon 6:2.—Towers of spice plants. The expression מִגְדְּלוֹת מֶרְקָחִים is doubtless so to be understood, as explanatory apposition to עֲרוּגַת הַבּשֶֹׁם and the bed of balm is accordingly to be conceived of as a plot embracing several “towers” or pyramidal elevations of aromatic herbs, by which the rich luxuriance of his beard and perhaps also its fine curly appearance is most fitly set forth (Ew, Delitzsch, Hengstenb, etc.). We can see no ground for the scruples, which are alleged to stand in the way of this explanation, or why we must with J. Cappellus suppose a reference to “boxes of unguents” (pyxides unguentorum) or with Hitzig, Friedr, Weissb, follow the Septuag. (φύουσαι μυρεψικά) in reading the part. מְגַדְּלוֹת. The fem. plur. מִגְדְּלוֹת from מִגְדָּל is also attested by Song of Solomon 8:10. The custom of raising fragrant plants on mounds of earth of a pyramidal or high tower-like shape, receives sufficient confirmation from Song of Solomon 4:6 (the “mountain of myrrh” and the “hill of frankincense”). And the whole comparison appears to be entirely appropriate, if we but think of the beard on the chin and cheeks of her lover as not merely a soft down (Hitz.) but as a vigorous, finely cultivated and carefully arranged growth of hair. And in this we are justified in precise proportion as we rid ourselves of the notion of a youthful lover of the rank of a shepherd, and keep in view king Solomon in the maturity of middle life as the object of the description before us. Besides the circumstance that they were in the habit of perfuming the beard, as is still done to a considerable extent in the east (see Arvieux, R., p52; della Valle, II:98; Harmer, Beobacht., II:77, 83; Reiske on Tarafa, p46) may have contributed its share to the particular form of the comparison.—His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.Of course it is not white but red lilies, lilies of the color, denoted Song of Solomon 4:3 by the “crimson thread,” to which the lips of her lover are here likened. The “dropping of liquid myrrh” (comp. on Song of Solomon 5:3) refers not to the lilies (Syr, Rosenm.) but directly to the lips. It serves to represent the lovely fragrance of the breath, which issues from her lips (comp Song of Solomon 7:9); for the “loveliness of his speech” (Hengstenb, comp. Targ.) is not mentioned till Song of Solomon 5:316.

Song of Solomon 5:14. His hands golden rods. Others, as Coccei, Gesen, (Thesaur. p287), Rosenm, Döpke, Vaih, [so Eng. Ver.], take גְּלִילֵי זָהָב to be gold rings, which they refer to the bent or closed hand, with allusion also to the fingernails colored with alhenna as compared with the jewels of the rings. Very arbitrarily, because1) the curved or hollow hand must necessarily have been denoted by כַף; 2) the proper expression for ring would not have been גָּלִיל but חוֹתָם or טַבַּעַת; 3) מְמֻלָּאִים could no more express the idea of being “set with anything,” than turquoises standing with it could yield a figure even remotely appropriate for yellow-stained finger nails. גָּלִיל is rather roller, cylinder, rod, and the expression “golden rods” is applied primarily to the individual fingers with reference to their reddish lustre and finely rounded shape (comp. Song of Solomon 5:11 a) and then by synecdoche to the hands consisting of the fingers.⁹⁹—Encased in turquoises. Whatever precious stone may be intended by תַּרְשִׁישׁ, whether the chrysolite of the ancients (see Septuag, Exodus 28:17; Exodus 39:13) which seems to answer to our topaz; or what is now called the turquoise (a light-blue semi-precious stone); or the onyx, which Hitzig proposes (though this was called שֹׁהַם, Genesis 2:12, etc.), it is at all events in bad taste to understand by this encasing of the fingers in costly jewels anything but actual jewel ornaments with which his hands glittered, agreeably to the well-known custom in the ancient East of wearing many rings. (Comp. Winer, Realwörterb., Art, “Ringe” and “Siegelring”). The nails in and of themselves differed too little in color and lustre from the fingers and hands as a whole, to admit of their being compared with precious stones; and staining them with alhenna (comp. on Song of Solomon 1:14) if practised at all in the time of Song of Solomon, was most likely a custom restricted to women and which could scarcely have been likewise in use amongst men. On מִלֵּא in the sense of “encasing” (lit, to fill in the encasement or enclosure) comp. Exodus 28:17; Exodus 31:5; Exodus 35:33. “Golden rods encased in turquoise” or “with turquoise” are properly such rods filled into the body of jewels here named i.e. surrounded and glittering with them (comp. Weissb. in loc.).—His body a figure of ivory, veiled with sapphires.מֵעָיו here, where the exterior parts of the body only are enumerated, is certainly not “his bowels, his inwards” (Hengstenberg), but “his body,” comp. Song of Solomon 7:3, as well as Daniel 2:32, where מֵעִים also stands as a synonym of בֶּטֶן. It is only the pure white and the smooth appearance of the body, i.e. of the trunk generally, including the breast, thighs, etc., which can be intended by the comparison with an עֵשֶׁת שֵׁן a “figure of ivory” (עֵשֶׁת sing, of עַשְׁתּוֹת [but see Gesen. Lex. s. v.—Tr.] forms, thoughts, Job 12:5), a comparison in which that ivory work of art restored by Solomon according to 1 Kings 10:18 may have been before the mind of the speaker. The sapphires veiling the statue are naturally a figure of the dress of sapphire-blue or better still of the dress confined by a splendid girdle studded with sapphires. On the latter assumption the apparent “unsuitableness of the comparison” vanishes, which certainly would have to be admitted (Hitz.) if the sapphire referred to the azure color of the dress. For it would evidently be too far-fetched, with Vaih. to refer the sapphire to the “blue veins appearing through the splendid white skin of the body,” and this would neither comport with the deep blue color of the sapphire or lapis lazuli, nor with the expression “veiled, covered (מְעֻלֶּפֶת) with sapphires.”—There is accordingly an indirect proof of the royal rank and condition of Shulamith’s lover in the representations of this verse likewise, especially in its allusions to the ornaments of precious stones on the hands and about the waist of the person described.

Song of Solomon 5:15. His legs columns of white marble. The figure of an elegant statue is here continued with little alteration. To understand the שׁוֹקַיִם simply of the lower part of the legs and to assume that Shulamith omits to mention the יְרֵכַיִםi.e. the upper part of the legs from a fine sense of decorum (Hitz.) is inadmissible, because שׁוֹקַיִם according to passages like Proverbs 26:7; Isaiah 47:2 appears to include the upper part of the leg, whilst יְרֵכַיִם according to Genesis 24:2; Exodus 28:42 : Daniel 2:32, etc., denotes rather the loins or that part of the body where the legs begin to separate. Further, the mention of the legs and just before of the body could only be regarded as unbecoming or improper by an overstrained prudishness, because the description which is here given avoids all libidinous details and is so strictly general as not even to imply that she had ever seen the parts of the body in question in a nude condition. It merely serves to complete the delineation of her lover, which Shulamith sketches by a gradual descent from head to foot, and moreover is to be laid to the account of the poet rather than to that of Shulamith, who is in every thing else so chaste and delicate in her feelings.—The legs are compared with “white marble” (שֵׁשׁ) principally on account of the lustrous color of their skin, not with reference to their solidity; for an Arabic poet (Amru b Kelth, Moal. 5:18) pictures even the legs of a girl as “pillars of marble and ivory;” and the figure of the marble column is also employed in a like sense by Greek poets and mythographers (comp. Vaih. in loc.). Set on bases of fine gold,viz., on the feet which are here named as the bases or pedestals of the columns (their יְסוֹד) without however going into any further description of them.¹⁰⁰His aspect like Lebanon.מַרְאֶה not synonymous with קוֹמָה “stature” ( Song of Solomon 7:8), but denoting his entire appearance, his whole figure and bearing comp. Song of Solomon 2:14. By this comparison with Lebanon his figure is characterized as majestically tall and impressive, comp. Jeremiah 46:18. There is probably no allusion to the “lordly look” which Lebanon bestows upon his beholders (vs.Rosenm, Magn.), and still less likelihood of a reference to the roots of the mountain penetrating deeply and extending widely in the earth as analogous to the “roots of her lover’s feet.” Job 13:27; Hosea 14:6 (vs.Hitz.).—Choice as the cedars; that is, stately and majestic as these giant trees which crown the summit of Lebanon.

Song of Solomon 5:16. His palate (is) sweets.חֵךְ is not the mouth for kissing (Magn, Böttch.) but the palate as an organ of speech, as in Job 6:30; Job 31:30; Proverbs 5:3; Proverbs 8:7. Hitz. correctly: “It is speech which first betrays that the beautiful body described Song of Solomon 5:10-15 has a soul;” whilst Weissb. in asserting that the palate is here regarded as an organ of breathing like the lips Song of Solomon 5:13, fails to perceive this advance from the corporeal to the spiritual and creates an unhandsome repetition. On the figure comp. Proverbs 16:21; Proverbs 27:9.—And he is altogether precious.כֻּלּוֹ “all of him” combines in one the sum total of the ten corporeal excellencies enumerated in Song of Solomon 5:11-15 together with the last named endowment of a spiritual nature, and thus completes the portrait of her lover, whereupon there follows the general reference to the preceding description: “This is my beloved, and this my friend, ye daughters of Jerusalem.”

See Son 8:1 for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

Footnotes

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