[3]. Sweet is the odour, &c. Ointments, like wines, were used by the ancients as cordials (Prov. xxvii. 9), and as restoratives in consequence of their supposed sanative properties. Hence the anointing of the sick. (Isa. i. 6, &c.; Jer. viii. 22.) The fainting Shulamite, therefore, mentions this second cordial. The ל in לְרֵיחַ signifies in, as regards, quoad, and is frequently used for the sake of giving prominence to an idea. Thus “Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth לְעֹשֵׁר וּלְחָכְמָה, in or as regards riches and wisdom.” (1 Kings x. 23.) Compare also Exod. xx. 5, 6; Ewald, § 217 a. Fürst, Lexicon, ל 5, f. The Sept. has ו instead of ל; or it may be, favours the view of Döpke, Heiligstedt, Meier, &c., that the ל introduces the nominative; but this requires another anomaly, viz., to refer טוֹבִים, to the nomen rectum, instead of regens, and does not at all improve the sense. The Syriac, Ibn Ezra, Authorized Version, Percy, Williams, Noyes, &c., take the ל in the sense of לְמַעַן, because, and connect it with עַל כֵּן, therefore, of the last clause; but these words are never used together for cause and effect. Besides, this explanation, like the former, interrupts the sense; for the fainting damsel evidently refers here to the second restorative. Luther strangely renders this clause, dass man deine gute Salbe rieche. Kleuker, Rosenmüller, Ewald, Delitzsch, Philippson, &c., translate לְרֵיחַ to the smell; but this is contrary to the usus loquendi, as רֵיחַ is never used for the organ which inhales, but invariably means something exhaled or emitted. Hodgson renders לְרֵיחַ, like the scent; but ל never signifies like. The instance in Deut. xi. 18, adduced in support of his assertion, is gratuitous, for the ל in לְטוֹטָפֹת has not that meaning. [[131]]
Which perfume thou art, by thy name, &c. This clause is explanatory of the preceding one, “Sweet is the odour of thy perfumes, because thou art that perfume.” The comparison of an agreeable person to perfumes arose from the great requisition of aromatics in the East. In warm climates perspiration is profuse, and much care is needful to prevent its offensiveness. Hence the use of perfumes particularly at weddings, feasts, on visits to persons of rank (2 Sam. xii. 20; Ps. xlv. 8; Prov. vii. 17; Amos vi. 6), and most of the occasions which bring people together with the intention of being agreeable to one another. Hence the pleasant odours diffused by perfumes soon became a metaphor to express the attractions which an agreeable person throws around him (Eccl. vii. 1), just as an offensive smell is used to express the contrary idea. (Gen. xxxiv. 30; Exod. v. 21.) The word תּוּרַק, being taken as the third person fem., has greatly perplexed interpreters. For neither שֶׁמֶן, to which the Sept., Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Immanuel, &c., refer it, nor שֵׁם, to which it is referred by Ewald, Gesenius, &c., ever occurs as feminine. Others, to overcome this difficulty, have either taken תּוּרַק as a proper name (Syria. R. Tobiah) or as an appellative (Bochart, Hieron. ii. 4, 26.) The true solution seems to be that the word in question is not the third person feminine but the second person masculine. So Rashi, Michaelis, Hengstenberg, &c. The words literally translated would be, like oil art thou poured forth, with regard to thy name. שִׁמְךָ, is the second accusative, comp. Ps. lxxxiii. 19; Ewald, § 281, 3 c. The words שֶׁמֶן and שֵׁם form a paranomasia. This figure, which consists of words ranged together of similar sound, but differing in sense, is frequently used in the Old Testament; and also occurs in the New. (Compare λιμοὶ καὶ λοιμοὶ, Luke xxi. 11, and Acts xvii. 25.)
Therefore do the damsels love thee. How natural for a woman, greatly admiring, and dotingly attached to her beloved, to think that every damsel must be enamoured of him! The most probable derivation of the much-disputed עַלְמָה, is from עָלָה = עוּל, to come up, to grow up; hence the Poel עוֹלֵל, a growth, a child, עֶלֶם, one growing up; with the termination –ֶם, (Compare Alma, in Latin, from alo, ἄλδω, and Fürst, Lexicon, מ 2 c,) and the feminine עַלְמָה, a growing damsel, without any reference to the idea of virginity, for which בְּתוּלָה is invariably used; Joel i. 8, not excepted. בַּעַל is here used, not to indicate that the marriage was consummated, but because the Jews regarded parties consecrated to each other from the very moment they were betrothed. Hence Mary is called the wife of Joseph, and he her husband. (Compare Matt. i. 19, 20, &c.) Other derivations assigned to עַלְמָה, such as עָלַם = חָלַם, to be fat, full, ripe, marriageable (Gesenius, &c.), or being excited, hence youth as being peculiarly subject to it (Lee); or עָלַם, to hide, be concealed, unrevealed, unknown; hence עֶלֶם and עַלְמָה, persons of a youthful age who were destitute of the knowledge which springs from sexual intercourse (Henderson) are exceedingly forced. Jerome’s assertion, as also Wordsworth’s, on Matt. i. 23, that עַלְמָה, is the designation of a virgin, because it signifies kept secret, as a virgin is under the care of her parents, is gratuitous, for עַלְמָה, is formed from עֶלֶם, a young man, of whom this cannot be said.
[4]. Oh draw me, &c. The Shulamite wishes that her beloved should not only come and cheer her fainting heart with the tokens of his love, but take her away altogether. אַחֲרֶיךָ belongs to מָשְׁכֵנִי. (Compare Job xxi. 33.) So the Chaldee, Immanuel, Luther, Mendelssohn, Kleuker, Percy, Hodgson, Ewald, Meier, Hitzig, Philippson, &c. The Septuagint renders מָשְׁכֵנִי, by εἵλκυσάν σε, mistaking it for מְשָׁכוּךָ, and adds לְרֵיחַ שְׁמָנֶידָ after אַחֲרֶיךָ, evidently [[132]]an interpolation from the first clause of the third verse, which the Vulgate, Percy, &c., follow.
The king has brought me, &c. It was the king, she tells us, who brought her into his apartments, and thus separated her from her beloved, in whom, however, she still delights. That this is the import of this clause is obvious from the words and connexion. The Shulamite began with invoking her absent beloved in the third person; but no sooner had she expressed her desire to be with him, than he is, as it were, present to her mind, and she forthwith, dropping the third person, addresses him in the second, and so continues to speak to him throughout the third verse. She begins the fourth verse in the same way, imploring her beloved, in the second person, to take her away, telling him that “the king, ‘HE,’ has brought her into his apartments” (mark the change from the second to the third person); and then continues and finishes her address to her beloved in the second person. Now we ask, do not the words הֱבִיאַנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ חֲדָרָיו, the king, “HE,” has brought me into his apartments, placed between מָשְׁכֵנִי אַחֲרֶיךָ, do “THOU” draw me after thee, and נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בָּךְ וגו׳, we exult and rejoice in “THEE,” &c., clearly show that the king here referred to is a separate person from the beloved to whom the maiden is addressing herself? We venture to affirm that few readers of the original Hebrew, whose minds are not biassed by a preconceived theory, can carefully peruse these three verses without observing that TWO persons are here introduced—viz. the beloved to whom, and the king of whom, the damsel speaks. Ibn Ezra, Immanuel, the Anonymous MS. Commentary, &c., could not help seeing this, and explained the passage, “Were even the king to bring me into his apartments, I should rejoice and be glad in thee” (the shepherd). The Septuagint, which is followed by the Vulgate, has again דַּדֶּיךָ, thy breast, instead of דֹדֶיךָ, thy love; but see supra, ver. 2.
The upright love thee. The word מֵישָׁרִים, is explained by Rashi, Rashbam, Döpke, De Wette, Rosenmüller, Gesenius, &c., by sincerely, uprightly; Ibn Ezra, who is followed by Houbigant, takes it as an adjective for wine, i.e. יַיִן הֹלֵך לְמַישָׁרִים, wine that glides down smoothly; and Ewald, Boothroyd, Magnus, Hitzig, &c., render it deservedly, justly. As for אֲהֵבוּךָ, it is either referred to עֲלָמוֹת, the damsels love thee more than wine (Ibn Ezra); or is taken impersonally, i.e. thou art sincerely or deservedly beloved. (Ewald, Magnus, &c.) But this is against the structure of these verses. For the second and third verses, consisting of five members, form one stanza, finishing with the words עֲלָמוֹת אֲהֵבוּךָ; and it is evident that the fourth verse, also consisting of five members, is of the same structure, and that the concluding words מֵישָׁרִים אֲהֵבוּךָ, are intended to correspond to those at the end of the first stanza. מֵישָׁרִים, therefore, must be taken as a parallelism with עֲלָמוֹת, and means the upright. So the Septuagint (εὐθύτης ἠγάπησέ σε, the abstract for concrete), Symmachus, (οἱ εὐθεῖς οἱ αγαπῶντές σε,) the Vulgate (recti diligant te), the Chaldee (צַדִּיקָיָא רְחִימוּ), English Version (margin), Mendelssohn, Philippson, &c. מֵישָׁרִים, the upright, is designedly chosen in preference to עֲלָמוֹת, damsels, in order to give an indirect and gentle blow to him who had separated her from her beloved. “Thee, the upright, and not the seduced love.”
[5]. I am swarthy, &c. The court ladies, indignant at this statement, looked with affected disdain upon the [[133]]discoloured rustic girl. The Shulamite repels these disdainful looks, for she knows that, though swarthy, she is comely, else the king would not have noticed her. A similar idea occurs in Theocritus (Idyl. x. 26–29), where Bambyce, though sun-burnt, is called beautiful.
Βομβύκα χαρίεσσα, Σύραν καλέοντι τὸ πάντες,
Ἰσχνὰν, ἁλιόκαυστον· ἐγὼ δὲ μόνος μελίχλωρον.
Καὶ τὸ ἴον μέλαν ἐντὶ, καὶ ἁ γραπτὰ ὑάκινθος.