Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/154



THE SHULAMITE.

12 While the king is at his table My nard shall diffuse its fragrance. 13 A bag of myrrh resting in my bosom

description. This is another proof that the bride was not a prince's daughter; since her ornaments were not even of gold or silver, notwithstanding the impassionate desire of Eastern ladies for costly adornments. The Sept. and Vulg. have [GR: ô(s trygo/nes], i. e. "thy neck is as beautiful as doves, [HE: k.at.vOriym/]; they have also [HE: k.aHa:rv.ziym/], like a necklace; but they have evidently mistaken the [HE: b] for [HE: k], as well as the meaning of [HE: t.vOr].

12. While the king is at his table. Here we see how signally the first attempt of Solomon failed to win the affections of the Shulamite. For no sooner did he go to his repast than the damsel indulges in sweet expressions of love with her beloved shepherd. Two distinct persons are here spoken of; the king at the table, and a beloved shepherd, called "nard." That by the expression [HE: nEr^ediy], my nard, the Shulamite means her beloved is evident from the following verse, where, led on by the figure of this odorous plant, she continues to call him by the fragrant names, "bag of myrrh," "bunch of cypress flowers," &c. [HE: `ad S/e], as long as, while, Sept. [GR: e(/ôs], Vulg. dum. [HE: mEsab] (from [HE: sobab] ''to sit round a table, to recline''. 1 Sam. xvi. 11, comp. Sept., Chald., Syriac, Arabic, Vulg. in loco,) seats set round, couches set in a circle, for reclining at the repast, according to the Oriental custom, (see Rosenmüller, Orient. iii. 631;) so the Sept. [GR: a)na/klisis]. Vulg. accubitus, Rashbam, [HE: bhsybvt 'kylvt hmSth], ''in the couch at the partaking of the repast''; and comp. Ps. cxxviii. 3. The reading of [HE: bmskv], in aulaeo, tentorio, instead of [HE: bmsbv], proposed by Houbigant, is both needless and unauthorized. [HE: nEr^ed.^e], spikenard or nard, [GR: na/rdos], is the ''Valeriana Jatamansi'', a plant peculiar to Hither India. It was obtained from India by way of Arabia and Southern Asia. The perfume extracted from it was highly prized. Thus we are told (Mark xiv. 31), when the Saviour sat at meat in Bethany, "there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious, and she broke the box, and poured it upon his head," (comp also John xii. 31,) which Judas, the betrayer, estimated at three hundred pence, about eight pounds ten shillings. The Romans considered this perfume so precious that Horace promises Virgil a whole cadus, about nine gallons, of wine for a small onyx-box full of spikenard. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiii. 2; Sir W. Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 416; Rosenmüller, Mineralogy and Botany of the Bible, p. 166; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit.; Winer, Bib. Dict. s. v.

13. A bag of myrrh, &c. This appellation is a continuation of the figurative expression "nard," under which the Shulamite described her beloved in the preceding verse. The Hebrew women were in the habit of wearing little bags or bottles filled with perfumes, especially with myrrh, suspended from the neck, and hanging down between their breasts, under the dress. Comp. Mishna, Sabbath vi. 3; Schroeder de Vestit. Mulier. p. 155; Hartmann, Hebr. ii. 235. The Shulamite says that her beloved is to her what this delightful perfume is to others; having him she did not require any other fragrance, [HE: x^erOr] (from [HE: xorar], to tie up, to close), is a leather smelling-bag or bottle, i. q. [HE: b.Eyt nepeS/], tied up, or closed at the top. [HE: mOr], [GR: smy/rna], [GR: my/r)r(a], Balsamodendron myrrha, (from [HE: morar], to flow,) myrrh, so called from its flowing down, is a perfume obtained from a shrub growing in Arabia, and much more profusely in Abyssinia. It formed an article of earliest commerce, was highly prized by the ancients, and is still much esteemed both in the East and in Europe. This aromatic liquid either exudes spontaneously