[14]. My dove in the clefts, &c. Having described the charming aspect of nature, he repeated his invitation to her to go with him into the fields. Impatient at her apparent delay, the beloved, whilst calling her by the endearing epithet “dove,” delicately ascribed to her the timorous character of that bird. Doves in the East make their nests in the clefts of elevated rocks and cliffs (Jer. xxviii. 28), which they are exceedingly afraid to leave when once frightened. Thus Homer, Iliad, xxi. 493:
Δακρυόεσσα δ’ ὕπαιθα θεὰ φύγεν, ὥστε πέλεια,
Ἣ ῥά θ’ ὑπ’ ἴρηκος κοίλην εἰσέπτατο πέτρην,
Χηραμὸν, οὐ δ’ ἄρα τῇ γε ἁλώμεναι αἴσιμον ἦεν.
“As when the falcon wings her way above,
To the cleft cavern speeds the frighten’d dove,
Straight to her shelter thus the goddess flew.”
See also Virg. Æn. v. 213. חֲגְוֵי is the plural construct. of חֲגָוְ (from the root חָגָה, to make incisions in, to split or perforate rocks); according to the analogy of קַצְוֵי, plural const. of קְצָו and מַדְוֵי from מְדָו, vide sup. ii. 11. מַדְרֵגָה, (from דָּרָג, cognate with דָּרַךְ, to ascend,) a place reached by climbing or ascending, a steep, a precipice. The Mazora marks the י in מַרְאֵיךְ as superfluous, evidently to avoid the apparent incongruity between the adjective נָאֲוָה, which is in the singular, and the noun מַרְאֵיךְ, apparently plural. But the י here may be retained, and the word may still be singular. For many nouns from roots ל״ה preserve in the singular before a suffix the original י of the root, and thus have the appearance of the plural: e.g. מִקְנֶיךָ, thy castle (Isa. xxx. 23), from מִקְנֶה, מַרְאָיו, the same expression, Job xli. 1; Gesen. § 93, 9; Ewald, § 256 b.
[15]. Catch us the foxes, &c. The Shulamite here quotes the words of her brothers, who had overheard the invitation. To prevent the meeting of the lovers, the brothers gave the damsel employment in the vineyard, to catch and keep out the foxes. To this she refers in i. 6, when, repelling the disdainful looks of the court ladies, and accounting for her brown complexion, she mentions the severe treatment of her brothers. שׁוּעָלִים, foxes, as well as jackals, were very numerous in Palestine (Judg. xv. 4; Lam. v. 18; Ps. lxiii. 11; Neh. iv. 3). There was a district actually called אֶרֶץ שׁוּעָל, from the abundance of these creatures, 1 Sam. xiii. 17. These animals are gregarious, found in packs of two or three hundred (Boch. Hieroz. lib. iii. 12), and are described, both by sacred and profane writers, as destructive to vineyards, Sam. i. 17, 18; and Theocritus, Idyl. v. 112:
Μισέω τὰς δασυκέρκος ἀλώπεκας, αἳ τὰ Μίκωνος