Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/195

 5 Thy neck is like an ivory tower; Thine eyes are as the pools in Heshbon, By the populous gate; Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, Looking towards Damascus. 6 Thy head upon thee as purple,

to one another, that each tower looked like one entire block of stone, so growing naturally, and afterwards cut by the hand of the artificer into the present shape and corners; so little, or not at all, did their joints or connexion appear." (Jewish War, book v. chap. iv. 4.—Whiston's translation.) The comparison of the neck with ivory is also used by Anacreon (Ode xxix. 28, 29), in his description of Bathyllus:—

[GR: To\n A)dô/nidos parelthô=n e)lefa/ntinos tra/chêlos.]

"But never can thy pencil trace His ivory neck of Paphian grace."

Thine eyes, &c. That is, are as bright and serene as the celebrated translucent pools of this city. Heshbon, a town in the southern parts of the Hebrew territory, about twenty miles east of the point where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, originally belonged to the Moabites (Numb. xxi. 25), and afterwards came into possession of the Amorite king Sihon (ibid.; Deut. ii. 24; Josh. iii. 10). It was conquered by Moses shortly before his death (Numb. xxi. 25), and was first assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Numb. xxxii. 37; Josh. xiii. 17), and afterwards to the tribe of Gad, and became a Levitical city (Josh. xxi. 39; 1 Chron. vi. 81). It was retaken by the Moabites when the ten tribes were carried into exile (Isa. xv. 4; xvi. 9; Jer. xlviii. 2), but the Jews conquered it again afterwards (Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii.) The ruins of Heshbon, the name by which the place is still known, have been visited and described by modern travellers. (Burckhardt, Travels, p. 365; Biblical Repos. for 1833, p. 650; Robinson, Palestine, ii. 278.) Heshbon was the pride of Moab, was famous for its fertility, verdure of plantation, and beautiful reservoirs. Hence the simile here. A similar comparison is used by Ovid, De Arte Ama. ii. 722:—

"Adspicies oculos tremulo fulgare meiantes, Ut sol a liquida saepe refulget aqua."

[HE: b.at rab.iym/] is well explained by Rashbam, the populous, [HE: Srvb bny h`yr yvx'yn/ vnknsyn/ bh], "because, through it a multitude of the inhabitants of the town walk in and out;" [HE: Shrbym/ b'ym/ lhstkl Sm/], "because it is the chief place of concourse." [HE: b.at], daughter, like [HE: b.en/], son, is idiomatically used in Hebrew to express quality. Compare [HE: b.en/_S/emen/], a son of fatness, i.e. fat; Isa. v. 1, and supra, vii. 2. The Septuagint, which is followed by the Vulgate, not understanding this idiom, renders it literally [GR: e)n py/lais thygatro\s pollô=n], by the gates of the daughter of many.

Thy nose, &c. This tower must have contained a projection or an over-hanging part, celebrated for its great symmetry and elegance. Hence the comparison between the beautifully projecting tower and the well-proportioned nose.

6. Thy head upon thee, &c. [HE: k.ar^emel] stands here for [HE: k.ar^emiyl], purpura; so Ibn Gamach, Ibn Ezra, Fürst, &c. This shell-fish is of a spiral form, and "the exquisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing cloth is situate in the middle of the throat. This secretion consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the tint of a rose, somewhat inclined to black." Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix. 60, 61; Arist. Hist. Anim. lib. v. c. 14. The simile here subsists between the spiral form of this shell-fish and the ''pyramidal shape'' in which the hair was anciently tied up on the top of the head. The Chinese and other Eastern women still wear their hair rolled up into a knot or bunch at the top of the head; and