Song of Solomon - Grace Notes

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SONG OF SOLOMON Page 46By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzscha Grace Notes studyBachmann, under Judg. 3:23), her eyes gleamout, which, without needing to besupplemented by ינֵי ‏,עֵ‏ are compared, as to theircolour, motion, and lustre, to a pair of doves.From the eyes the praise passes to the hair.1b Thy hair is like a flock of goatsWhich repose downwards on Mount Gilead.The hair of the bride’s head was uncovered. Weknow from later times that she wore in it awreath of myrtles and roses, or also a “goldencity” של זהב)‏ ‏,(עיר i.e., an ornament whichemblematically represented Jerusalem. To seethat this comparison is not incongruous, wemust know that sheep in Syria and Palestine arefor the most part white; but goats, for the mostpart, black, or at least dark coloured, as e.g., thebrown gedi Mamri. The verb גָ‏ לַ‏ ש is the Arab. jls,which signifies, to rest upon; and isdistinguished from the synon. q’d in this, thatthe former is used of him who has previouslylain down; the latter, of one who first standsand then sits down. The nejd bears also thename jals, as the high land raising itself, and likea dome sitting above the rest of the land. Onehas to think of the goats as having lain down,and thus with the upper parts of their bodies as‏,מַ‏ ר מִ‏ דְׁ‏ לִ‏ י is used almost as in מֵ‏ הַ‏ ר in מִ‏ ן up. raisedIsa. 40:15. A flock of goats encamped on amountain (rising up, to one looking from adistance, as in a steep slope, and almostperpendicularly), and as if hanging downlengthwise on its sides, presents a lovely viewadorning the landscape. Solomon likens to thisthe appearance of the locks of his beloved,which hang down over her shoulders. She wastill now a shepherdess, therefore a second ruralimage follows:2 Thy teeth are like a flock of shorn sheepWhich comes up from the washingAll bearing twins,And a bereaved one is not among them.Song 4:2. The verb קָ‏ צַ‏ ב is, as the Arab. shows,‏.גָ‏ זַז in the sense of tondere oves, the synon. ofWith shorn (not to be shorn) sheep, the teeth inregard to their smoothness, and with washedsheep in regard to their whiteness, arecompared—as a rule the sheep of Palestine arewhite; in respect of their full number, in whichin pairs they correspond to one another, theone above to the one below, like twin births inwhich there is no break. The parallel passage,6:6, omits the point of comparison of thesmoothness. That some days after the shearingthe sheep were bathed, is evident fromColumella 7:4. Regarding the incorrectexchange of mas. with fem. forms, vid., under2:7. The part. Hiph. מַ‏ תְׁ‏ אִ‏ ימות (cf. υ ς,Theocr. i. 25) refers to the mothers, none ofwhich has lost a twin of the pair she had borne.In “which come up from the washing,” there isperhaps thought of, at the same time with thewhiteness, the saliva dentium. The moisture ofthe saliva, which heightens the glance of theteeth, is frequently mentioned in the love-songsof Mutenebbi, Hariri, and Deschami. And thatthe saliva of a clean and sound man is notoffensive, is seen from this, that the Lord healeda blind man by means of His spittle.Song 4:3. The mouth is next praised:3a Like a thread of crimson thy lips,And thy mouth is lovely,שָ‏ נִי ‏,אַ‏ רְׁ‏ גָ‏ מָ‏ ן red-purple, As distinguished from(properly, shining, glistening; for this form hasan active signification, like י ‏,נָקִ‏ as well as apassive, like נִי עַ‏ ת שָ‏ נִי ‏,‏fully‏—(עָ‏ signifies‏—ּתולַ‏ thekermes or worm-colour; the karmese, the redjuice of the cochineal. דְׁ‏ בָ‏ רֵ‏ יְך)‏ מִ‏ דְׁ‏ בָ‏ רַ‏ ‏ְך ‏(מִ‏ istranslated by the LXX “thy speech;” Jerome,eloquium; and the Venet. “thy dialogue;” butthat would be expressed, though by a ἁπ. λεγ.,by מִ‏ דְׁ‏ בָ‏ ר ‏.דִ‏ בּורֵ‏ ‏ְך is here the name of the mouth,the naming of which one expects; the preform.is the mem instrumenti: the mouth, as theinstrument of speech, as the organ by which thesoul expresses itself in word and in manner ofspeech. The poet needed for פִ‏ יְך a fuller, moreselect word; just as in Syria the nose is notcalled anf, but minchâr (from nachara, to blow,to breathe hard).Praise of her temples.
SONG OF SOLOMON Page 47By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzscha Grace Notes study3b Like a piece of pomegranate thy templesBehind thy veil.is the thin piece of the skull on both sides of רַ‏ קָ‏ הthe eyes; Lat., mostly in the plur., tempora;German, schläfe, from schlaff, loose, slack, i.e.,weak = ק ‏.רַ‏ The figure points to that soft mixingof colours which makes the colouring of the socalledcarnation one of the most difficultaccomplishments in the art of painting. The halfof a cut pomegranate (Jer. fragmen mali punici)is not meant after its outer side, as Zöcklersupposes, for he gives to the noun răkkā,contrary to Judg. 4:21; 5:26, the meaning ofcheek, a meaning which it has not, but after itsinner side, which presents a red mixed andtempered with the ruby colour,—a figure somuch the more appropriate, since the groundcolourof Shulamith’s countenance is a subduedwhite. Up to this point the figures are borrowedfrom the circle of vision of a shepherdess. Nowthe king derives them from the sphere of hisown experience as the ruler of a kingdom. Shewho has eyes like doves is in form like a bornqueen.4 Like the tower of David thy neck,Built in terraces;Thereon a thousand shields hang,All the armour of heroes.Song 4:4. The tower of David, is, as it appears,“the tower of the flock,” Mic. 4:4, from whichDavid surveyed the flock of his people. In Neh.3:25f. it is called the “tower which lieth outfrom the king’s high house,” i.e., not the palace,but a government house built on Zion, whichserved as a court of justice. But what is themeaning of the ἁπ. λεγ. לְׁ‏ פִ‏ יות ‏?ּתַ‏ Grätz translates:for a prospect; but the Greek ηλ π ς, of whichhe regards תל׳ as the Heb. abstr., is a word sorare that its introduction into the Semiticlanguage is on that account improbable. Hengst.translates: built for hanging swords; and he‏,ּתָ‏ לָ‏ ה (from ‏ּתַ‏ ל sees in the word a compound ofwith which forms such as יָד = jadj, שַ‏ ד = shadj,but this ‏;פִ‏ יות 2 Sam. 6:7, are compared) and ‏,שַ‏ לlatter word signifies, not swords, but edges ofthe (double-edged) sword; wherefore Kimchi(interpreting תַ‏ ל as the constr. of ל ‏,תֵ‏ as ל ‏,אַ‏ insharp- explains: an erection of ‏(צֵ‏ ל is of ‏,בְׁ‏ צַ‏ לְׁ‏ אֵ‏ לcornered stones; and, moreover, the Heb.language knows no such nmm. comp.appellativa: the names of the frog, פַ‏ רְׁ‏ דֵ‏ ע ‏,צְׁ‏ andthe bat, לֵ‏ ף (cf. the Beth in [Arab.] sa’lab, fox,with the added Pe), are not such; and alsotsalmāveth, the shadow of death, is at a laterperiod, for the first time, restamped as suchfrom the original tsalmuth (cf. Arab. zalumat =tenebrae). Gesen. obtains the same meanings;for he explains לתל׳ by exitialibus (sc.,, armis),עֲ‏ טַ‏from an adj. לְׁ‏ פִ‏ י ‏,ּתַ‏ from ‏ּתָ‏ לַ‏ ף = Arab. talifa, toperish, the inf. of which, talaf, is at the presentday a word synon. with halak (to perish);(Arab.) matlaf (place of going down) is, likea poetic name of the wilderness. The ‏,ישימוןexplanation is acceptable but hazardous, sinceneither the Heb. nor the Aram. shows a trace ofתלף׳ this verb; and it is thus to be given up, ifcan be referred to a verbal stem to be found inthe Heb. and Aram. This is done in Ewald’sexplanation, to which also Böttcher and Rödig.give the preference: built for close (crowded)troops (so, viz., that many hundreds orthousands find room therein); the (Arab.) verbaff, to wrap together (opp. nashar, to unfold), isused of the packing together of multitudes oftroops (liff, plur. lufuf), and also of warlikehand-to-hand conflicts; תלף׳ would be traced toa verb לָ‏ פָ‏ ה synon. therewith, after the formwere meant of troops, then תלף׳ But if ‏.ּתַ‏ אֲ‏ נִיָהthey would be denoted as the garrison foundtherein, and it would not be merely said thatthe tower was built for such; for the point ofcomparison would then be, the imposing lookof the neck, overpowering by the force of theimpression proceeding from within. But now, inthe Aram., and relatively in the Talm. Heb., not‏,(אַ‏ לְׁ‏ פִ‏ י (Af. לְׁ‏ פִ‏ י occur, but also לּוף and לָ‏ פַ‏ ף onlyand that in the sense of enclosure, i.e., of joiningtogether, the one working into the other,—e.g.,
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