on the weet of the Dead Be11r-Hazezon cover over " (like "canopy" in Greek, ""'""'' Tamar, now Ain Tid'//, where Solomon made ,,.,,011, so called from its protecting the t.erraoes on the hillBides and covered them person nnder it from the ,cd,vonre,, o:r with gardens and vineynrds. The allusion "gnats"). It is not that the nuptial bed oonflrme the date of the writing as con- is particularly intended, or even the bridal temporary with Solomon, as the gardens bower, but the home itself as a bowery would then be in their perfection. The resting-place. "Our home is a sweet figure is, perhaps, intended to be an advance cduntry home ; take me, there, beloved one." in rhetorical force upon that which preceded The word "green" is very suggestive in the -the fmgranee diffused l\nd almost over- Hebrew. It is said to "combine in itself the powering, ae of a blossoming tree. ideas of softness and juicy freshness, perhaps Ver. 15.-Behold, thou art fair, my love; of bending and elasticity, of looseness and behold, thou art fair ; thine eyes are as thus of overhanging ramification, like weep- doves; literally, thine eyes are doves. The ing willow. Beams, from a root" to meet," king receives the worship of his bride and " to lay crosswise," " to hold together." delights in her. She is very sweet and fair But the meaning depends upon the idea of to him. The dove is a natural symbol of the whole description. Some would render love; hence it wo.s attached by the classical " fretted ceilings,'' or " galleries; " but Dr. nations to the garden of love, together Ginsburg gives it, "our bower is of cedar with the myrtle, rose, and apple, all of arches," which excludes the idea of a formal which we find introduced in this Hebrew structure made of cedar beams. The same poem. Hence the Arabic name for a dove, meaning is conveyed in the last clause, Jemima, as we see in the Book of Job, was " our rafters are firs." The word rendered the name of a woman (cf. Oolumhina). " rafters" (c•i:i;) literally signifies " a place The language of the king is that of ecete.sy; upon which one runs" (like p1i,, a "street"), hence the interjection and repetition. The i.e. a charming or pleasant spot. The enraptured monarch gazes into the eyes of beroth is the cypress tree, an Aramaic word, his beloved bride, and sees there only purity, or one used in the north of Palestine. The constancy, and affection. In eh. vii. 4 the meaning is, " our pleasant retreat is eyes are compared to fish-ponds, no doubt cypresses"-is beautiful and fragrant with for their clear, liquid depth and serenity. the cypress tree. Delitzsch, however, and Some have thought that the allusion is to others would te.ke it differently as describing the very lovely eyes of the doves; but there the panels or hollows of a. wainscoted ceil- is no need of the limitation. ing, like ,Pa.Tva.l, lacu'llal, lacunaria, aud the Ver. 16-oh. ii. !.-Behold, thou art fair, LXX., ,pa.n.,,.cl.Ta.: Symmachns, ,Pa.Tvo,rre,s : my beloved; yea, pleasant ; also our couch Jerome, laquearii (cf. Isa.. lx. 13). But is green. The beams of our house are the concluding words would then be un- oedars, and our rafters are firs. I am a fitting. The bride is not describing a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley. We splendid palace, but a country home. "I take these three verses together as being, am a tender maiden," she says, "who has in all probability, the address of the bride been brought up in retirement; take me to to her royal husband. This was the view a forest palace and to the green, fragrant taken by the M11.11oretio editors and pre- surroundings, where the meadow-flower, the served in our present pointing of the valley-lily will be happy." We are so Hebrew, as we see in the masculine form of accustomed to the rendering of eh. ii. 1, the first word, 'H;:J, which replies to the which our Revised Version h!!.s ndopted feminine form in ver. 15, 1~;:i. The seven- from the Authorized, that it would be teenth verse is apparently abrupt. Why wrong to destroy the effect which it borrows should the bride pass so suddenly from the from long familiarity unless it were abso- general address of affection, "Thou art fair, lutely neoessary. The word chavatselet/1, thou art pleasant," to a particular descrip- however, has been differently translated; tion of a rural scene P The explano.tion it is literally any wild flower-rose, saffron suggested by some of the critics is not far- crocus (Colchicr£m au.tum11ale), tulip, nar- fetohed, that Solomon whispers to her that cissus, lily. The crocus is, perhaps, nearest she shall go baok with him to her country to the meaning, as the name is probably life if she pleases, or she reminds him of hie derived from a root "to form bulbs" or promise made at some other time. Un- bulbous knolls. It occurs only once again, doubtedly the point of Shulamith's response in Isl\. xxxv. 1, where it is rendered "rose" lies in eh. ii. 1, " I am not o.t ense in this in the Authorized Version; LXX., liv9os: palatial splendour; I am by no.tul'0 n rose Vulgate,flos. Some derive it from the foot of Bhnron, a lily of the volley. Tnke me chavaz, "to bo bright," with ', as termina. to the green couch, and let me lie under the tion. Sharon may be hero a gencrnl cedars nnd tho fire." The couch is the denomination of the open field or plain, divan (of. Amos vi. 4), from e. root "to from ~J;, " to be straight, plaiu." There THE SONG OF ~OLOMON. [olI. I, 1-17.
was ll district CRlled Sharon on the coast bably akin to eheeh, "byssus," ehayisl,, from Joppa to Crosarea. There was another "white marbles" (cf. Hos. xiv. 5, "He Sharon hevond the Jordnn (see I Chron. shall bloom as a lily "). Our Lord's refer- v. 16). A~l'ording to Eusebius and Jerome, ence to " the lilies of the field " reminds us t.here wns yet Rnother, between Tabor and that they were in Palestine both very beau- TiberiRS, and this, as being in the north, tiful and very abundant. Zookler thinks nm, be referred to. Aquila renders "o. it is uot the strongly scented white lily rosebud of Sharon." The lily (shoshannah) (Lilium candidum) to which reference is is onh- found ns here in the feminine form made, but the red lily (Lilium rubena); but in the Apocryplui. The red and white lily either will convey the same idea. of o. were both known. Some would derive the flower of the field whioh is meant. "My word from the numeral (~lufsh) "six," beauty is the heo.uty of nature-artless and because the liliacem are six-leaved, while pure." the rosacem are five-leaved; but it is pro-