[6]. Thy head upon thee, &c. כַּרְמֶל stands here for כַּרְמִיל, purpura; so Ibn Gamach, Ibn Ezra, Fürst, &c. This shell-fish is of a spiral form, and “the exquisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing cloth is situate in the middle of the throat. This secretion consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the tint of a rose, somewhat inclined to black.” Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix. 60, 61; Arist. Hist. Anim. lib. v. c. 14. The simile here subsists between the spiral form of this shell-fish and the pyramidal shape in which the hair was anciently tied up on the top of the head. The Chinese and other Eastern women still wear their hair rolled up into a knot or bunch at the top of the head; and [[180]]even in this country ladies used to dress their hair in a somewhat similar manner. The rendering of the ancient versions of כַּרְמָל, by Mount Carmel, which the majority of modern interpreters follow: they take the simile to be between the beautiful appearance of the bride’s head and the charming, luxuriant, and picturesque summit of this celebrated mountain; but this is against the parallelism and 2 Chron. ii. 16, 13; iii. 14. כַּרְמֶל = כַּרְמִיל is derived from כָּרַם, to be shiningly red, with –ִיל appended, according to the analogy of פְּתִיגִיל; vide Fürst, Lexicon in voce; or it may be that this shell-fish was so called because it was found on the shore near Carmel. At all events, there is no need to look for the etymology of this word out of the Shemitic family.
And the tresses, &c. Fine hair is frequently compared by the Greeks and Romans with purple. Thus Anacreon, xxviii. 11, 13.
γράφε δ’ ἐξ ὅλης παρειῆς
ὑπὸ πορφύραισι χαίσταις
ἐλεφάντινον μέτωπον.
Then paint, from her full cheeks,
Beneath her purple hair,
Her ivory forehead.
Compare also Virgil, Georg. i. 405; Tibul. i. 4, 63. The purple here referred to is that kind which Pliny describes as “nigrans adspectu idemque suspectu refulgens.” אַרְגָּמָן, the costly colour extracted from the shell-fish, is from רָגַם, kind. רָקַם, to colour, with the prostetic א and termination –ָן; vide supra, chap. iii. 9.
The king is captivated, &c. The ringlets, like the lashes of the eyelids, are frequently represented as the net of love. Prov. vi. 25; Sirach ix. 3, 4. Thus Jami, in his Joseph and Zuleikha, chap. i., as quoted by Dr. Good, says:—