Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/161

 9 My beloved was like a gazelle, Or the young one of a hind. Lo! there he stood behind our wall, He looked through the window, He glanced through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake, he spake to me, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come! 11 For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over, is gone. 12 The flowers appear upon the fields,

and is used in animated descriptions to arrest attention, Ewald, § 286 f.

9 My beloved is like, &c. To describe the speed of his approach the Shulamite compares him to the swift-*footed gazelle, and nimble fawn. This comparison is also used in other parts of Scripture. Thus Asahel is called light-footed as a gazelle. 2 Sam. ii. 18; Prov. vi. 5; Hab. iii. 19. "The Eastern buildings generally surround a square inner court; the beloved is described as gradually making his approach, first to the wall, then looking through the window." Here is another incontestable proof that the object of the damsel's affection, whom she describes as coming to her, is not the king, but a shepherd, for the king could not consistently be represented as bounding over the hills. Though [HE: 'ay.ol] has a feminine, [HE: 'ay.oloh], which is used in ver. 7, yet instead of its being here [HE: l^e`Oper 'a:yolvOt], we have [HE: ho'ay.oliym/]: see also Ps. xlii. 2. This is owing to the neglect on the part of the writer to avail himself of the forms established by usage, Gesen. § 107, 1. Or it may be that such names were still of a common gender, and the feminines were only in the process of formation, but not as yet fixedly established, Ewald, § 175 b. [HE: k.Otel] occurs only here, but it is evident from Dan. v. 5, and the Targum, Josh. ii. 15, where it stands for the Hebrew [HE: qiyr], that it means a wall forming a part of the house. The Sept. has here [HE: `al horEy botor], from ii. 17.

10, 11. Arise, my love, &c. The Shulamite introduces here her beloved as speaking. He urges her to go, since the rain is over, and everything without is charming. [HE: `onoh] is idiomatically used in reference even to the person speaking first, without any antecedent interrogation. (Deut. xxvi. 5; Isa. xiv. 10; xxi. 9.) The meaning of the word seems to be simply ''to impart information'', either asked for or not. In the former case [HE: `onoh] obtains the additional idea of a reply, whereas in the latter it merely means to inform, to tell, like [GR: a)pokri/nomai] in the New Testament. Comp. [GR: a)pokrithei=s ei)=pe], Matt. xvii. 4; Mark ix. 5. On the use of the dative [HE: lok/^e], see Gesen. § 164, 3 e. Ewald, § 315 a. The [GR: a(pa. le/g.] [HE: s^etov] properly denotes ''the winter = the rainy season'', at the end of which, viz. February or March, the spring advances with surpassing quickness; it excludes the autumn, and thus differs from [HE: HOrep/]. The form [HE: s^etov] (from [HE: sotoh], to winter), is, according to the analogy of [HE: Ha:gov], [HE: m^edov], [HE: q^exov], see Fürst, Lexicon, under [HE: Ha:gov]. The Sept. has mistaken the dative [HE: lok/^e] for the imp. [HE: l^ekiy], and adds [HE: yvOnotiy], my dove, after [HE: yopotiy], my beauty.

12. The flowers appear, &c. The gradual development is exceedingly beautiful; the description unfolds with the season. After the graphic delineation of the meadows strewed with a profusion of variegated flowers; of the men in the fields, and the birds hovering over them, joining to pour forth a volume of various sounds; of the delicious odour of the embalmed fig, and fragrant vine, the beloved