who, in the following verses, is admitted, and compliments the bride anew. But I confess I have my doubts whether the section should not have begun sooner; namely, with the invitation of the chorus, 'Return, O Solima,' &c. Such at least is the division of some critics; but in a matter so doubtful and unimportant, I have followed the majority.

RY

We have already considered the description as referring chiefly to the bride's dress, and in the general I am confident we are right, though I have doubts upon some particulars. How important an article of female ornament the sandals were considered, we learn from the instance of Judith, whose sandals ravished the eyes of Holofernes'. The cincture of the 'loins" was the girdle, fastened with a ruby

1

Judith, ch. xvi. 9. So Lady W. Montague, describing her eastern dress, says her shoes were of white kid leather, embroidered with gold. See Harmer's Sol. Song. p. 107.

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2 The cincture of thy loins.' This, beside its decency, is more accurate and literal than the vulgar rendering. Mr. Parkhurst (after Harmer) supposes the radical idea of this word (n) to withdraw, retire,' &c. but I conceive the old lexicographers were right in rendering the verb ' circuivit,' to go round about. So Jer. xxxi. 22. How long wilt thou. go about, O thou backsliding daughter ?' (Usque quo circuibis filia adversatrix ?)-The Lord shall create a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man:' (femina circundabit virum. Pagninus :) where there seems an allusion between the members of the verse, which renders it highly probable, according to the laws of Hebrew parallelism, that they are synonimous. So in this Song, chap. v. 6. My beloved had withdrawn;' literally was gone round, i. e. to the other side of the house. Now, if we are right in the radical idea, the word must here mean, as Cocceius and others have explained it, (Tɛpikwμala, quæ ambiunt femora tua)

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+

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clasp, which might properly be compared to a cup of wine'. The next part of the dress has

what is girded about thy thighs or loins.' [See Leigh's Crit, Sac. and Parkhurst in verbum.] Ambitus femorum tuorum.' Buxtorf, Mercerus, Junius.

The original word for jewellery, own, according to Park. hurst, means engraved ornaments; but the particle of comparison (5) being inserted in the original, like jewellery,' must mean openwork or embroidery. The cincture here intended then, is a girdle richly embroidered in imitation of jewellery, or the art of the goldsmith, and probably fastened in the front by a clasp, cut in the form of a covered cup or goblet, and which if cut in a ruby would appear a goblet filled with wine. But the chief difficulty rests in the next word, usually rendered navel.

The word sharer (w) certainly signifies umbilicus, the navel, and if so taken here, must not be referred to the outward form, but to the use of this part in affording nourishment to the fœtus in the womb; and in that respect be considered as a cup or goblet filled with wine: if so, this expression is of the same nature with the following, thy body

is an heap of wheat,' both intimating the abundant fertility of the spouse. But as several kindred words derived from the same root are applied to articles of dress or ornament, as (w) bracelets, or perhaps necklaces, (v) a breast-plate, (ww) a chain, or, in short, any ornament round like a ring, or composed of a series of rings::-as several words from the same root are thus applied, Bp. Patrick. Mr. Harmer, Parkhurst, &c. have considered this as referring to the clasp of the cincture or girdle, which (according to the radical idea) fastens and regulates the whole dress. Now we know that the ladies, in various parts of the east, display their taste in ornaments of this nature, and in particular Niebuhr mentions a lady of Alexandria, whose clasp was in the form of two little oval shields, with a flower in the middle. (Voy. en Arab. tab. xxiv. vol. I.) Now if the clasp of this royal spouse were made of a ruby, and in the shape of a cup, poetry would very naturally call it a cup of wine. Moreover, because the original word rendered round (2) in Chaldee signifies the moon, some of the rabbins have suggested that this may intend the same ornament referred to in Isa. iii. 18.round tires like the moon.'

has been referred to the vest embroidered with a wheatsheaf and with lilies': but I rather con

That the eastern wines are red, and that their cups are spherical and highly polished, appears from the following couplet of Hafez, Richardson's Spec. of Persian Poetry.]

1

"Approach, O Sophy, [this] cup which is a pure mirror, In order that thou may'ft behold [in it) the delightfulness of ruby-coloured wine.'

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Bp. Patrick considers both the cup and the wheat encompassed with lilies, as' figures embroidered on the vest with gold and silver: by the former he understands a bason or fountain in the centre, and by the later a harvest scene wrought about it, somewhat similar to what Homer tells us was wrought by Vulcan on the shield of Achilles. The late editor of CALMET has suggested that the comparison here intended is that of the vest (or boddice) fastened with a gir dle, to a sheaf of wheat tied about with lilies. This is elegant and ingenious, but (supposing the ancients tied their wheat in sheafs) the word here used (ny) is not a sheaf, but a heap of naked wheat, or corn threshed out. (See Parkhurst in any, and the texts there referred to)

But after all, as (D) biten, certainly refers primarily to the body, and is often used as synonimous with (m) womb, [see Ps. xxii. 9, 10], I prefer considering this as a compliment to the bride on her fertility. So Selden says, wheat and barley were among the antient Hebrews ein⚫blems of fertility: and it was usual for standers-by to scatter these grains upon the married couple, with a wish that they might increase and multiply. Perhaps (adds he) the 'passage in the text is a prediction of the bride's fertility.' [Uxor Hebraica, lib. ii. cap. 15.] A custom which might probably originate from this passage, or vice versa. Either way it offers a happy illustration.

The lilies which surround, or rather cover, this wheat, I would refer to a robe of fine linen, pure and white, embroidered perhaps with lilies, which were the most usual ornaments of the Hebrews When the corn was laid in heaps, suppose a quantity of field lilies were thrown [Heb. turned] over it, to protect it from the birds; or rather perhaps as Mr. Arthur Jackson suggests, in the manner of garlands, as a token of joy; and to this I suppose the allusion in the text.

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sider it as a compliment quite in the Jewish style, on her expected fertility, her innocence, and purity. So Mrs. RowE;

Like summer harvests fruitful, and as fair

As silver lilies in their snowy pride.'

The neck and bosom are described in nearly the same terms as before'. The eyes, clear, dark, and full, are compared to the pools in Heshbon; and her nose, as the index of a 'strong mind, is compared to the abutment of a Her head, crowned with flowerets, is

tower 3.

'The only observable difference is, that the neck is here compared to a tower of ivory-not that Solomon had such a tower, but because her neck was erect like a tower, and white as ivory. So Anacreon uses the expression [λεPavlivos Teaxyλos] an ivory neck, in describing a handsome person. It may be here recollected that the spouse, chap. i. describes herself as brown or swarthy, but then she says this colour was adventitious, she was sun-burnt; but as her bosom might not be thus exposed, that might properly be compared to ivory, if not to snow.

See

The gate of Bathrabbim was probably one of the gates of Heshbon, which led to Rabbath or Rabba, called a city of waters, perhaps from the pools here referred to. Numb. xxi. 26 2 Sam. xii. 27. Jer. xlix. 3. The comparison of the eyes to pools is classical and elegant. So Philostratus (as quoted in Patrick), says, Thou seemest to car

ry water, as it were from the fountain of thine eyes, and therefore to be one of the nymphs.'

3.This tower of Lebanon, says Dr. Gill, seems to be one that was built in or near the forest of Lebanon, and was a frontier tower for that part of the country which lay towards Damascus.' To this tower, with its abutment, is compared a fine well-proportioned human nose, which has always been considered as no small beauty, and, by physiognomists, as the indication of a great mind. Lavater says, I have generally considered the nose as the foundation, or abutment of the brain. Whoever is acquainted with the gothic arch, will perfectly understand what I mean by this

compared to Carmel', and the tresses of her head are rolled up in the spiral form of the porpura.

abutment: for upon this the arch of the forehead rests.' After describing a good nose he adds, Such a nose is worth ⚫ a kingdom.'

1 Carmel 6 was a very fruitful mountain, whose top was ⚫ covered with vines, corn-fields, and fruitful trees:' see Isa. XXXV. 2. Amos i. 2. The allusion is to the nuptial crown, or garland, made of flowers, &c. which was worn by the bride on the marriage day: and this may denote the graces of the blessed Spirit, which are an ornament of grace to the head, &c. Gill.-Philostratus (as quoted by Patrick) has the same image, referring to artificial flowers: Thy head is a large meadow full of flowers; which are never wanting in 'the summer, and disappear not in the winter.'

2 The tresses [Heb. branches] of thine head like the forpura.' On no passage in this song are the critics more divided than on this. Some say like purple,' or scarlet; but these are not proper colours for the hair: others refer it to the fillet or hair lace; still the note of comparison is unaccountably redundant.

gint.

The Vulgate says, like royal-purple bound in the canals; i. e. says Mons. Goguet, the canals of the dyers, who dyed their wool in little bundles before weaving. The eastern ladies to this day wear their hair tied in a great number of tresses down their backs: so Mess. Harmer and Parkhurst. Another critic says like royal purple tied, or hung in drapery in the galleries.' Neither of these latter versions, however, can be reconciled to the Jewish punctuation, nor the SeptuaThe late editor of Calmet takes Aragamen (N) for a proper name, like Carmel, and thinking it alludes to a particular manner of plaiting the hair, like the weaving of Arech, a city in Babylonia, supposed to be famous for its weaving manufacturies. This however is all conjecture, and the interpretation of Michaelis and Bp. Percy is so much more elegant and simple, that I cannot help giving it in every respect the preference. The tresses of thine head like the porpura,' (or murex) a fpiral shell fish, whence was extracted the famous purple dye of Tyre: meaning that the trésses were tied up in a spiral or pyramidal form on the top,