Song of Solomon - Grace Notes

SONG OF SOLOMON Page 19By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzscha Grace Notes study(for). We prefer, with Böttch., the former,because in the latter case we would have hadsignifies, שְׁ‏ חַ‏ רְׁ‏ חֹרֶּ‏ ת The quinqueliterum ‏.שהשמשin contradistinction to חור ‏,שָ‏ that which is blackhere and there, and thus not altogether black.This form, as descriptive of colour, isdiminutive; but since it also means id quodpassim est, if the accent lies on passim, asdistinguished from raro, it can be also taken as‏,יְׁפֵ‏ יפָ‏ ה increasing instead of diminishing, as in(Symm. The LXX trans. π έ λεψέ ‏.הֲ‏ פַ‏ כְׁ‏ פַ‏ ‏ְךπ έ λεψέ) ε ὁ ἥλ ς: the sun has lookedaskance on me. But why only askance? TheVenet. better: ε έ ε; but that is too little.The look is thought of as scorching; whereforeAquila: συ έ υσέ ε, it has burnt me; andTheodotion: πε έφ υξέ ε, it has scorched meover and over. שָ‏ זַ‏ ף signifies here not adspicere(Job 3:9; 41:10) so much as adurere. In thisword itself (cogn. דַ‏ ף ‏;שָ‏ Arab. sadaf, whenceasdaf, black; cf. דָ‏ עַ‏ ‏ְך and עַ‏ ‏ְך ‏,זָ‏ Job 17:1), thelooking is thought of as a scorching; for the raysof the eye, when they fix upon anything, gatherthemselves, as it were, into a focus. Besides, asthe Scriptures ascribe twinkling to the morningdawn, so it ascribes eyes to the sun (2 Sam.12:11), which is itself as the eye of the heavens.The poet delicately represents Shulamith asregarding the sun as fem. Its name in Arab. andold Germ. is fem., in Heb. and Aram. for themost part mas. My lady the sun, she, as it were,says, has produced on her this swarthiness.She now says how it has happened that she isthus sunburnt:6b My mother’s sons were angry with me,Appointed me as keeper of the vineyards—Mine own vineyard have I not kept.If “mother’s sons” is the parallel for “brothers”then the expressions are of the same ‏,(אַ‏ חַ‏ י)‏import, e.g., Gen. 27:29; but if the twoexpressions stand in apposition, as Deut. 13:7[6], then the idea of the natural brother issharpened; but when “mother’s sons” standsthus by itself alone, then, after Lev. 18:9, itmeans the relationship by one of the parentsalone, as “father’s wife” in the language of theO.T. and also 1 Cor. 5:5 is the designation of astep-mother. Nowhere is mention made ofShulamith’s father, but always, as here, only ofher mother, 3:4; 8:2; 6:9; and she is only namedwithout being introduced as speaking. One isled to suppose that Shulamith’s own father wasdead, and that her mother had been marriedagain; the sons by the second marriage werethey who ruled in the house of their mother.These brothers of Shulamith appear towardsthe end of the melodrama as rigorous guardiansof their youthful sister; one will thus have tosuppose that their zeal for the spotless honourof their sister and the family proceeded from anendeavour to accustom the fickle or dreamingchild to useful activity, but not without stepbrotherlyharshness. The form חֲ‏ רּו ‏,נִ‏ Ewald, §193c, and Olsh. p. 593, derive from רַ‏ ר ‏,חָ‏ the‏,(נִ‏ חְׁ‏ רַ‏ ר =) נִ‏ חַ‏ ר or נָ‏ חַ‏ ר Niph. of which is eitherנִ‏ חַ‏ ר Gesen. § 68, An. 5; but the plur. of thisshould, according to rule, have been נִ‏ חָ‏ רּו (cf.however, חֲ‏ לּו ‏,נַ‏ profanantur, Ezek. 7:24); andחַ‏ רָ‏ ר from נִ‏ חַ‏ ר what is more decisive, thiseverywhere else expresses a different passionחָ‏ רָ‏ ה 379). (2, 1060 § Böttch. from that of anger;נִ‏ חֲ‏ רּו is used of the burning of anger; and that‏,נֶּ‏ חֱ‏ רּו can be another form for ‏(נִ‏ חְׁ‏ רָ‏ ה = נֶּ‏ חֱ‏ רָ‏ ה (fromis shown, e.g., by the interchange of אֶּ‏ חֱ‏ רּו andAmos ,6:6 resisted ‏,נֶּ‏ חְׁ‏ לּו like ‏,נֶּ‏ חְׁ‏ רּו the form ‏;אִ‏ חֲ‏ רּוthe bringing together of the ח and the halfguttural ‏.ר Nĕhĕrā (here as Isa. 41:11; 45:24)means, according to the original, mid. signif. ofthe Niph., to burn inwardly, φλέγεσθ =ὀ γίζεσθ . Shulamith’s address consistsintentionally of clauses with perfects placedtogether: she speaks with childlike artlessness,and not “like a book;” in the language of a book,‏.שָ‏ מֻ‏ נִי would have been used instead of וַ‏ יְׁשִ‏ מּונִיBut that she uses נֹטֵ‏ רָ‏ ה (from ‏,נטר R. טר = η ε ;cf. Targ. Gen. 37:11 with Luke 2:51), and not