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 Neither to excite nor to incite my affection Till it wishes another love.

Isa. xxix. 9; Zeph. ii. 1. [HE: 'aha:boh] is the abstract, love, affection, iii. 10; vii. 7. After [HE: S/et.eH^ep.ox/] supply [HE: dvOd 'a:Har]. Similarly, Rashbam. The Sept. strangely renders [HE: b.ix^ebo'vOt 'vO b.^e'aylvOt haS\.odeh], [GR: e)n duna/mesi kai\ i)schy/sesi tou= a)grou=], by the powers and virtues of the field. Thus in this scene, the first attempts, both on the part of the king and the court ladies, to win the Shulamite's affections, signally failed. The same formula re-occurs iii. 5, and viii. 4, to mark, at the end of the trials, her successful resistance.

SECTION II.

CHAPTER II. 8-III. 5.

Here we have a second scene, which is also in the royal tent. The speakers are the Shulamite and the court ladies. The Shulamite, to account for the cause of the severity of her brothers, mentioned in ii. 6, relates that her beloved shepherd came one charming morning in the spring to invite her to the fields (8-14); that her brothers, in order to prevent her from going, gave her employment in the gardens (15); that she consoled herself with the assurance that her beloved, though separated from her at that time, would come again in the evening (16, 17); that seeing he did not come, she, under difficult circumstances, ventured to seek him, and found him (ch. iii. 1-4). Having narrated these events, and reiterated her ardent affection for her beloved, she concludes as before, by adjuring the court ladies not to persuade her to change her love.

THE SHULAMITE.

8 Hark! my beloved! Lo, he came Leaping over the mountains, Bounding over the hills.

8. ''Hark! my beloved!'' Having alluded in the preceding Section (i. 6) to the ill-treatment which she had received from her brothers, the Shulamite now relates the cause of that treatment. Thus whilst this narrative forms the connecting link between this and the preceding Section, it also gradually acquaints us with her history. The description given of the arrival and conduct of her beloved is very graphic and beautiful. She first sees him at a distance, bounding over the hills with the speed of the swift-*footed gazelle, and presently he is found behind the wall, peeping through the window, and imploring her in the sweetest language imaginable to go with him into the fields and enjoy the beauties and charms of nature. [HE: qvOl] is not [HE: qvOl rag^eloyv], the sound of his feet (Ibn Ezra, Hitzig), which could not be heard at such a distance from the mountains; nor the voice of his song (Döpke, Philippson), for he could not very well sing when running at such a speed as here described; but simply means hark! (Ewald, Magnus, Meier),