(3.) I made for myself gardens and parks, and planted in them fruit-trees of every kind.
(5.) I made for myself gardens and parks, and planted in them trees of every kind of fruit. It should have been mentioned that פרדס is also considered to afford an indication of late composition. It is said to be a Persian word; it occurs, however, Nehemiah ii. 8; Canticles iv. 10. The word admits of Semitic derivation, from פרד, ‘to divide,’ ‘cut off in portions,’ ‘lay out.’ If it be really an exotic, no date of introduction is more probable than that of Solomon. It is also to be noted that in the context it follows the word ‘gardens,’ which is quite natural if it were intended to denote a foreign luxury recently introduced.
6 I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
(4.) I made for myself reservoirs with which to irrigate meadows and growing copses.
(6.) I made for myself pools of water to irrigate from them the meadows shooting forth trees. (This, which contains ‘for myself’ four times, the first half of the seven, consists of an enumeration of immoveable objects, or what the law calls real property, the others which follow are moveables or personal.)
7 I got me servants and maidens, and had [¹]servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: