Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/162

 The time of singing is come, The cooing of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. 13 The fig-tree sweetens her green figs, The vines blossom, They diffuse fragrance; Arise, my love, my fair one, and come!

exclaims: "Nature has prepared a rich banquet; come, let us go and enjoy it!" The Sept., Aquila, Sym., Vulg., Chald., Rashbam, render [HE: `Et hav.omiyr], by ''the season for the pruning of vines'': Gesenius defends this rendering, but against the usage of the word [HE: zomiyr], and the connexion. Wherever [HE: zomiyr] occurs, either in the singular (Isa. xxv. 5), or plural (2 Sam. xxiii. 1; Isa. xxiv. 16), it invariably means song or singing. Moreover, the parallelism, and the whole of the description, demand that it should be rendered so here. All the pleasures and charms here depicted are gratifications for the senses, and are adduced by the beloved as the invitation of nature to enjoy her banquet; whereas the pruning of the vines would be a summons to ''engage in toil''. Besides, the vine is mentioned afterwards in its rotation (v. 13), and it would mar the gradual progression of this minute description to suppose that it has been uselessly repeated. Hence it has been rightly rendered singing by Rashi, Kimchi, Ibn Ezra, Anonymous Oxford Manuscript, Mendelssohn, Kleuker, Ewald, Döpke, Rosenmüller, De Wette, Magnus, Hengstenberg, Philippson, Fürst, Meier, Hitzig, &c. The objection that [HE: zomiyr], singing, means the song of men, is obviated by referring it here to the season when both man and bird begin to sing. [HE: zomiyr], like other words of the form [HE: qoTiyl], expresses the time of the action; comp. [HE: 'osiyp/], harvest; properly the time when the fruit is gathered. [HE: HoriyS/], the time of ploughing. Gesen. § 84, 5; Ewald, § 149 e.

The cooing of the turtle, &c. The turtle-dove is a migratory bird (Jer. viii. 7; Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 3, 12, 16; Pliny, Hist. Nat. x. 36; Winer, Bib. Dict.; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit. s. v.); it resides in the winter farther south than Palestine, and returns in the spring, when its cooing voice in the woods announces the return of that season.

13. ''The fig-tree sweetens her green figs.'' The word [HE: HonaT] is now rendered by many commentators, according to the example of Ibn Ezra, to sweeten, to embalm, to spice; i. e. the fig-tree sweetens her fruit by filling it with aromatic juice. This rendering is confirmed by the use of [HE: HonaT], to embalm (Gen. l. 2, 26), which was done with spices and aromatic plants (2 Chron. xvi. 14; John xix. 40). The Sept., Aquila., and Vulg. render [HE: HonaT], puts forth, but this signification cannot be deduced from the root. Ewald, Magnus, Hitzig, have "the fig-tree reddens," &c., but the verb is not used in this sense in Hebrew. [HE: p.og] (from [HE: p.ogag] immature), an unripe fig, Sept. [GR: o)/lunthos], Vulg. grossus; so in the Talmud and Ibn Erza, [HE: pry Trm/ SytbSl], the fruit before it is ripe.

The vines blossom, &c. It is well known that the blossoming vine smells sweetly; comp. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiv. 2. [HE: v^ehan.^eponiym/ s^emodar], lit. the vines are in blossom, i. e. the vines blossom; so Sym. [GR: oi)na/nthê], Vulg. florentes. Substantives are frequently used in Hebrew instead of adjectives to express properties; thus [HE: v^ehap.iS/^et.oh gib^e`Ol], the flax was bolled. Exod. ix. 31; Ezra. x. 13. This peculiarity is to be accounted for by supposing either that the adjectives were not as yet formed, or if formed were still not currently used. Gesen. § 106, 1; Ewald, § 296 b. [HE: lok^ey] stands for [HE: lok/^e]; comp. ver. 10; the [HE: y] has been occasioned by the preceding form [HE: qv.miy], and succeeding words [HE: ra`o:ytiy yopohiy], which terminate in [HE: y]. This is not unfrequently