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 stock, denotes not so much the soil in which the vines are planted, as rather the vines themselves): her kěrěm is her (Arab.) karamat, i.e., her stately attractive appearance. If we must interpret this mystically then, supposing that Shulamith is the congregation of Israel moved at some future time with love to Christ, then by the step-brothers we think of the teachers, who after the death of the fathers threw around the congregation the fetters of their human ordinances, and converted fidelity to the law into a system of hireling service, in which all its beauty disappeared. Among the allegorists, Hengstenberg here presents the extreme of an interpretation opposed to what is true and fine.

Verse 7
These words (Sol 1:5-6) are addressed to the ladies of the palace, who look upon her with wonder. That which now follows is addressed to her beloved: 7 O tell me, thou whom my soul loveth: where feedest thou? Where causest thou it (thy flock) to lie down at noon? Among the flocks of thy companions! The country damsel has no idea of the occupation of a king. Her simplicity goes not beyond the calling of a shepherd as of the fairest and the highest. She thinks of the shepherd of the people as the shepherd of sheep. Moreover, Scripture also describes governing as a tending of sheep; and the Messiah, of whom Solomon is a type, is specially represented as the future Good Shepherd. If now we had to conceive of Solomon as present from the beginning of the scene, then here in Sol 1:7 would Shulamith say that she would gladly be alone with him, far away from so many who are looking on her with open eyes; and, indeed, in some country place where alone she feels at home. The entreaty “O tell me” appears certainly to require (cf. Gen 37:19) the presence of one to whom she addresses herself. But, on the other hand, the entreaty only asks that he should let her know where he is; she longs to know where his occupation detains him, that she may go out and seek him. Her request is thus directed toward the absent one, as is proved by Sol 1:8. The vocat., “O thou whom my soul loveth,” is connected with אתּה, which lies hid in הגּידה (“inform thou”). It is a circumlocution for “beloved” (cf. Neh 13:26), or “the dearly beloved of my soul” (cf. Jer 12:7). The entreating request, indica quaeso mihi ubi pascis, reminds one of Gen 37:16, where, however, ubi is expressed by איפה, while here by איכה, which in this sense is hap leg For ubi = איפה, is otherwise denoted only by איכה (איכו), 2Ki 6:13, and usually איּה, North Palest., by Hosea אהי. This איכה elsewhere means quomodo,