Song of Solomon - Grace Notes

SONG OF SOLOMON Page 13By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzscha Grace Notes studycogitationes longe plus absurditatis habent. Toinventory the maculatur of these absurdities isa repulsive undertaking, and, in the main, auseless labour, from which we absolveourselves.Song of Solomon 1Song 1:1. The title of the book at once denotesthat it is a connected whole, and is the work ofone author.—Ch. 1:1. The Song of Songs,composed by Solomon. The genitival connection,“Song of Songs,” cannot here signify the Songconsisting of a number of songs, any more thancalling the Bible “The Book of books” leads us tothink of the 24 + 27 canonical books of which itconsists. Nor can it mean “one of Solomon’ssongs;” the title, as it here stands, would thenbe the paraphrase of יר שִ‏ ירֵ‏ י שְׁ‏ ׳ ‏,שִ‏ chosen for thepurpose of avoiding the redoubled genitives;but “one of the songs” must rather have beenexpressed by יר מִ‏ שִ‏ ירֵ‏ י ‏.שִ‏ It has already beenrightly explained in the Midrash: “the mostpraiseworthy, most excellent, most highlytreasuredamong the songs.” The connection issuperl. according to the sense (cf. ηof Sophocles), and signifies that songwhich, as such, surpasses the songs one and allof them; as “servant of servants,” Gen. 9:25,denotes a servant who is such more than allservants together. The plur. of the second wordis for this superl. sense indispensable (vid.,Dietrich’s Abhand. zur hebr. Gramm. p. 12), butthe article is not necessary: it is regularlywanting where the complex idea takes the placeof the predicate, Gen. 9:25, Ex. 29:37, or of theinner member of a genitival connection ofwords, Jer. 3:19; but it is also wanting in otherplaces, as Ezek. 16:7 and Eccles. 1:2; 12:8,where the indeterminate plur. denotes nottotality, but an unlimited number; here it wasnecessary, because a definite Song—that,namely, lying before us—must be designated asthe paragon of songs. The relative clause, “asherlishlōmō,” does not refer to the single word“Songs” (Gr. Venet. ῶ ῦ), as it would if theexpression were יר מֵ‏ הַ‏ שִ‏ ׳ ‏,שִ‏ but to the whole ideaof “the Song of Songs.” A relative clause ofsimilar formation and reference occurs at 1Kings 4:2: “These are the princes, asher lo,which belonged to him (Solomon).” They whodeny the Solomonic authorship usually explain:The Song of Songs which concerns or refers toSolomon, and point in favour of thisinterpretation to LXX B. ὅ ἐσ Σ λ., which,however, is only a latent genit., for which LXX A.ῷ Σ λ. Lamed may indeed introduce thereference of a writing, as at Jer. 23:9; but if thewriting is more closely designated as a “Song,”“Psalm,” and the like, then Lamed with thename of a person foll. is always the Lamedauctoris; in this case the idea of reference to, ase.g., at Isa. 1:1, cf. 1 Kings 5:13, is unequivocallyexpressed by ‏.על We shall find that thedramatized history which we have here, or aswe might also say, the fable of the melodramaand its dress, altogether correspond with thetraits of character, the favourite turns, thesphere of vision, and the otherwise well-knownstyle of authorship peculiar to Solomon. Wemay even suppose that the superscription waswritten by the author, and thus by Solomonhimself. For in the superscription of theProverbs he is surnamed “son of David, king ofIsrael,” and similarly in Ecclesiastes. But he whoentitles him merely “Solomon” is most probablyhimself. On the other hand, that the title is bythe author himself, is not favoured by the factthat instead of the ‏,ש everywhere else used inthe book, the fuller form asher is employed.There is the same reason for this as for the factthat Jeremiah in his prophecies always usesש asher, but in the Lamentations interchangeswith asher. This original demonstrative ש isold-Canaanitish, as the Phoenician ‏,אש arrestedhalf-way toward the form asher, shows. In theBook of Kings it appears as a North Palest.provincialism, to the prose of the pre-exilianliterature it is otherwise foreign; but the preexilianshir and kinah (cf. also Job 19:29) makeuse of it as an ornament. In the post-exilianliterature it occurs in poetry (Ps. 122:3, etc.)and in prose (1 Chron. 5:20; 27:27); inEcclesiastes it is already a component part of