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 The damsels saw her and praised her; The queens also, and the concubines, and extolled her thus: 10 "Who is she that looks forth as the morn, Beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts?"

THE SHULAMITE.

11 I went down into the nut-garden, To look among the green plants by the river, To see whether the vine was budding, Whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

best beloved of her mother, and whose consummate beauty has elicited the highest praises from the queens, concubines and maidens. The discrepancy between the number of Solomon's wives and concubines here stated, and that described in 1 Kings xi. 3, maybe reconciled by taking [HE: S/iS/iym/], [HE: S/^emOniym/] and [HE: 'Eyn/ mis^ep.or] for indefinite and large numbers: many, very many, without number: so Kleuker, Rosenmüller, Magnus, &c. "We must supply [HE: liy], to me, after [HE: hEm.oh], there. For [HE: hEm.oh], mas, instead of [HE: hEn.oh], fem., see ii. 7. The pronoun [HE: hiy'], she, is the subject in all the three clauses, and [HE: 'aHat] in the first and second clause, and [HE: b.aroh] in the third are predicates. We must supply [HE: liy] after [HE: 'aHat hiy'], she is my only one; just as [HE: 'aHat hiy' l^e'im.oh]. The word [HE: 'eHod] is used for the only one of its kind (Job xxiii. 13; Ezek. ii. 64; vii. 5), favourite; comp. [HE: g.vOy 'eHod b.o'orex/], 2 Sam. vii. 23. 10. Who is she that looks forth, &c. That Solomon quotes here the eulogy mentioned in the preceding verse, which the court ladies pronounced upon the superlative beauty of the Shulamite when they first beheld her, has long been recognised by the Rabbins, and is now admitted by most interpreters. This is, moreover, confirmed by Prov. xxxi. 28, where the same words, [HE: 'iS/.Er] and [HE: hal.El], are used, and the following verse contains the eulogy which the husband utters. The rising morning, with its red light looking down from heaven over the mountains (Joel ii. 2); the beautiful and placid complexion of the moon, and the refulgent and resplendent appearance of the sun, have often afforded, both to the Oriental and to the Greek and Latin writers, exquisite similes for beauty and grandeur. Thus Sirach (l. 5, 6), describing the High Priest, says:— "How splendid he was in his interview with the people. In his coming out from the house of the veil! As the morning star amid the clouds, As the moon when full in her days, As the sun when beaming upon the temple of the Most High." Comp. also Rev. i. 16; Theocritus' description of Helen, xviii. 26-28; Lane's Arabian Nights, i. 29. [HE: Ham.oh] and [HE: l^ebonoH] are poetical epithets for the sun and moon, Isa. xxiv. 23. 11, 12. I went down into the nut-garden, &c. As Solomon had referred, in uttering his encomium, to her first coming within sight of the court ladies, the Shulamite here instantly interrupts the king, in order to explain how that came to pass. "I did not go to meet the king, to exhibit myself and be admired by him or his royal retinue; I merely went into the garden with the intention of seeing whether there were any herbs to take home for use, and whether the fruit promised well; and this ([HE: nap^eS/iy]) intention of mine brought me unawares near the monarch and his cortége." Though [HE: 'e:gvOz], nut-tree, (so Sept., Vulg., Chald.,) nut occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, yet its meaning is established from the cognate languages, and its frequent usage in the Talmud and latter Hebrew writers, [HE: ro'oh b], to look among (Gen. xxxiv.), with the intention of choosing