Song of Solomon - Grace Notes

SONG OF SOLOMON Page 49By C. F. Keil and F. Delitzscha Grace Notes studyfavourable to the Solomonic authorship of thebook. This grandiose picture of thedistinguished beauty of the neck, and theheightening of this beauty by the ornament ofchains, is now followed by a beautiful figure,which again goes back to the use of thelanguage of shepherds, and terminates thedescription:5 Thy two breasts are like two fawns,Twins of a gazelle,Which feed among lilies.Song 4:5. The dual, originating in the innerdiffer. of the plur., which denotes in Heb. nottwo things of any sort, but two paired by nature‏,שָ‏ דַ‏ יִם form; or by art, exists only in the principalas soon as inflected, is unrecognisable,therefore here, where the pair as such ispraised, the word שְׁ‏ נֵי is used. The breasts arecompared to a twin pair of young gazelles inrespect of their equality and youthful freshness,and the bosom on which they raise themselvesis compared to a meadow covered with lilies,on which the twin-pair of young gazelles feed.With this tender lovely image the praise of theattractions of the chosen one is interrupted. Ifone counts the lips and the mouth as a part ofthe body, which they surely are, there are seventhings here praised, as Hengst. rightly counts(the eyes, the hair, teeth, mouth, temples, neck,breasts); and Hahn speaks with right of thesevenfold beauty of the bride.Song 4:6. Shulamith replies to these words ofpraise:6 Until the day cools and the shadows flee,I will go forth to the mountain of myrrhAnd to the hill of frankincense.All those interpreters who suppose these to bea continuation of Solomon’s words, losethemselves in absurdities. Most of themunderstand the mountain of myrrh and the hillof frankincense of Shulamith’s attractions,praised in v. 5, or of her beauty as a whole; butthe figures would be grotesque (cf. on the otherhand ,(5:13 and אֵ‏ לֵ‏ ‏ְך לִ‏ י אֶּ‏ ל prosaic, wherefore itcomes that the idea of betaking oneself awayconnects itself with הלך לו (Gen. 12:1; Ex.18:27), or that it yet preponderates therein(Gen. 22:2; Jer. 5:5), and that, for אלך לי in thepassage before us in reference to 2:10, 11, thesupposition holds that it will correspond withthe French jè m’en irai. With right Louis de Leonsees in the mountain of myrrh and the hill offrankincense names of shady and fragrantplaces; but he supposes that Solomon says hewishes to go thither to enjoy a siesta, and thathe invites Shulamith thither. But we readnothing of this invitation; and that abridegroom should sleep a part of his marriagedayis yet more unnatural than that, e.g., Wilh.Budäus, the French philologist, spent a part ofthe same at work in his study. That notSolomon but Shulamith speaks here is manifestin the beginning, “until the day,” etc., which at2:17 are also Shulamith’s words. Anton (1773)rightly remarks, “Shulamith says this to setherself free.” But why does she seek to makeherself free? It is answered, that she longs to beforth from Solomon’s too ardent eulogies; shesays that, as soon as it is dark, she will escape tothe blooming aromatic fields of her nativehome, where she hopes to meet with herbeloved shepherd. Thus, e.g., Ginsburg (1868).But do myrrh and frankincense grow in NorthPalestine? Ginsburg rests on Florus’ EpitomeRerum Rom. iii. 6, where Pompey the Great issaid to have passed over Lebanon and byDamascus “per nemora illa odorata, per thuris etbalsami sylvas.” But by these thuris et balsamisylvae could be meant only the gardens ofDamascus; for neither myrrh nor frankincenseis indigenous to North Palestine, or generally toany part of Palestine. Friedrich (1866)therefore places Shulamith’s home at Engedi,and supposes that she here once more looksfrom the window and dotes on the mountain ofmyrrh and the hill of frankincense, “where, atthe approach of twilight, she was wont to lookout for her betrothed shepherd.” But Shulamith,as her name already denotes, is not from thesouth, but is a Galilean, and her betrothedshepherd is from Utopia! That myrrh andfrankincense were planted in the gardens of