Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Song of Songs Chapitre 8

5 a Who is this coming up out of the wilderness,

Leaning on her beloved?

The third Acts; Song of Solomon 3:6, began with a similar question to that with which the sixth here commences. The former closed the description of the growth of the love-relation, the latter closes that of the consummated love-relation. Instead of “out of the wilderness,” the lxx has “clothed in white” ( λελευκανθισμένη ); the translator has gathered mit|chauweret from the illegible consonants of his MS before him. On the contrary, he translates מתחוּרת correctly by ἐπιστηριζομένη (Symm. ἐπερειδομένη , Venet. κεκμηκυῖα ἐπί , wearily supporting herself on ...), while Jerome renders it unsuitably by deliciis affluens , interchanging the word with מתפּנּקת . But התרפּק , common to the Heb. with the Arab. and Aethiop., signifies to support oneself, from רפק , sublevare (French, soulager ), Arab. rafaḳa , rafuḳa , to be helpful, serviceable, compliant, irtafaḳa , to support oneself on the elbow, or (with the elbow) on a pillow (cf. rafîk , fellow-traveller, rufḳa , a company of fellow-travellers, from the primary idea of mutually supporting or being helpful to each other); Aethiop. rafaḳa , to encamp for the purpose of taking food, ἀνακλίνεσθαι (cf. John 13:23). That Shulamith leant on her beloved, arose not merely from her weariness, with the view of supplementing her own weakness from his fulness of strength, but also from the ardour of the love which gives to the happy and proud Solomon, raised above all fears, the feeling of his having her in absolute possession. The road brings the loving couple near to the apple tree over against Shulamith's parental home, which had been the witness of the beginning of their love.

5 b Under the apple tree I waked thy love:

There thy mother travailed with thee;

There travailed she that bare thee.

The words, “under the apple tree I waked thee,” עוררתּיך , might be regarded as those of Shulamith to Solomon: here, under this apple tree, where Solomon met with her, she won his first love; for the words cannot mean that she wakened him from sleep under the apple tree, since עורר has nowhere the meaning of הקיץ and העיר here given to it by Hitzig, but only that of “to stir, to stir up, to arouse;” and only when sleep or a sleepy condition is the subject, does it mean “to shake out of sleep, to rouse up” ( vid., under Song of Solomon 2:7). But it is impossible that “there” can be used by Shulamith even in the sense of the shepherd hypothesis; for the pair of lovers do not wander to the parental home of the lover, but of his beloved. We must then here altogether change the punctuation of the text, and throughout restore the fem. suffix forms as those originally used: עוררתּיך , חבּלתך אמּך ,

(Note: חבּלתך , penult. accented, and Lamed with Pathach in P. This is certainly right. Michlol 33 a adduces merely ילדתך of the verse as having Kametz, on account of the pause, and had thus in view חבּ , with the Pathach under Lamed. But P. has also יל , with Pathach under Daleth, and so also has H, with the remark בּ פתחין (viz., here and Jeremiah 22:26). The Biblia Rabbinica 1526 and 1615 have also the same pointing, Pathach under Daleth. In the printed list of words having Pathach in pause, this word is certainly not found. But it is found in the MS list of the Ochla veochla, at Halle.)

and ילדתך (cf. שׁו , Isaiah 47:10), in which we follow the example of the Syr. The allegorizing interpreters also meet only with trouble in regarding the words as those of Shulamith to Solomon. If התפיח were an emblem of the Mount of Olives, which, being wonderfully divided, gives back Israel's dead (Targ.), or an emblem of Sinai (Rashi), in both cases the words are more appropriately regarded as spoken to Shulamith than by her. Aben-Ezra correctly reads them as the words of Shulamith to Solomon, for he thinks on prayers, which are like golden apples in silver bowls; Hahn, for he understands by the apple tree, Canaan, where with sorrow his people brought him forth as their king; Hengstenberg, rising up to a remote-lying comparison, says, “the mother of the heavenly Solomon is at the same time the mother of Shulamith.” Hoelemann thinks on Sur. 19:32 f., according to which 'Isa, Miriam's son, was born under a palm tree; but he is not able to answer the question, What now is the meaning here of the apple tree as Solomon's birthplace? If it were indeed to be interpreted allegorically, then by the apple tree we would rather understand the “tree of knowledge” of Paradise, of which Aquila, followed by Jerome, with his ἐκεῖ διεφθάρη , appears to think, - a view which recently Godet approves of;

(Note: Others, e.g., Bruno von Asti († 1123) and the Waldensian Exposition, edited by Herzog in the Zeit. für hist. Theol. 1861: malum = crux dominica . Th. Harms (1870) quotes Song of Solomon 2:3, and remarks: The church brings forth her children under the apple tree, Christ. Into such absurdities, in violation of the meaning of the words, do the allegorizing interpreters wander.)

there Shulamith, i.e., poor humanity, awakened the compassionate love of the heavenly Solomon, who then gave her, as a pledge of this love, the Protevangelium, and in the neighbourhood of this apple tree, i.e., on the ground and soil of humanity fallen, but yet destined to be saved, Shulamith's mother, i.e., the pre-Christian O.T. church, brought forth the Saviour from itself, who in love raised Shulamith from the depths to regal honour. But the Song of Songs does not anywhere set before us the task of extracting from it by an allegorizing process such far-fetched thoughts. If the masc. suff. is changed into the fem., we have a conversation perfectly corresponding to the situation. Solomon reminds Shulamith by that memorable apple tree of the time when he kindled within her the fire of first love; עורר elsewhere signifies energy (Psalms 80:3), or passion (Proverbs 10:12), put into a state of violent commotion; connected with the accus. of the person, it signifies, Zechariah 9:13, excited in a warlike manner; here, placed in a state of pleasant excitement of love that has not yet attained its object. Of how many references to contrasted affections the reflex. התע is capable, is seen from Job 17:8; Job 31:29; why not thus also עורר ?

With שׁמּה Solomon's words are continued, but not in such a way as that what follows also took place under the apple tree. For Shulamith is not the child of Beduins, who in that case might even have been born under an apple tree. Among the Beduins, a maiden accidentally born at the watering-place ( menhîl ), on the way ( rahîl ), in the dew ( ṭall ) or snow ( thelg ), is called from that circumstance Munêhil , Ruhêla , Talla , or Thelga .

(Note: Vid., Wetstein's Inschriften (1864), p. 336.)

The birthplace of her love is not also the birthplace of her life. As התפוח points to the apple tree to which their way led them, so שׁמה points to the end of their way, the parental home lying near by (Hitzig).

The lxx translates well: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ μήτηρ σου , for while the Arab. ḥaḅida means concipere , and its Pi., ḥabbada , is the usual word for gravidam facere , חבּל in the passage before us certainly appears to be

(Note: The Arab. ḥabilat , she has conceived, and is in consequence pregnant, accords in the latter sense with ḥamilat , she bears, i.e., is pregnant, without, however, being, as Hitzig thinks, of a cognate root with it. For ḥamal signifies to carry; הבל , on the contrary, to comprehend and to receive (whence also the cord, figuratively, the tie of love, liaison, as enclosing, embracing, is called ḥabl , הבל ), and like the Lat. concipere and suscipere , is used not only in a sexual, but also in an ethical sense, to conceive anger, to take up and cherish sorrow. The Assyr. לבה , corresponding to the Heb. בן , is explained from this Arab. ḥabl , concipere . On the supposition that the Heb. had a word, חבל , of the same meaning as the Arab. ḥabl , then חבּל might mean concipiendo generare ; but the Heb. sentence lying before us leads to the interpretation eniti .)

a denom. Pi. in the sense of “to bring forth with sorrow” ( חבלי היּלדה ). The lxx further translates: ἐκεῖ ὠδίνησέ σε ἡ τεκοῦσά σε , in which the σε is inserted, and is thus, as also by the Syr., Jerome, and Venet., translated, with the obliteration of the finite ילדתך , as if the reading were ילדתּך . But not merely is the name of the mother intentionally changed, it is also carried forward from the labour, eniti, to the completed act of birth.

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The locality of this scene is Shulamith's parental home. It is she herself who speaks in these words:

8 We have a sister, a little one,

And she has no breasts:

What shall we do with our sister

In the day when she will be sued for?

Between Song of Solomon 8:8 and Song of Solomon 8:7 is a blank. The figure of the wanderers is followed by the figure of the visitors. But who speaks here? The interchange of the scene permits that Shulamith conclude the one scene and begin the other, as in the first Act; or also that at the same time with the change of scene there is an interchange of persons, as e.g., in the third Act. But if Shulamith speaks, all her words are not by any means included in what is said from Song of Solomon 8:8 to Song of Solomon 8:10. Since, without doubt, she also speaks in Song of Solomon 8:11 f., this whole second figure consists of Shulamith's words, as does also the second of the second Acts; Song of Solomon 3:1-5. But there Shulamith's address presents itself as the narrative of an experience, and the narrative dramatically framed in itself is thoroughly penetrated by the I of the speaker; but here, as e.g., Ewald, Heiligst., and Bצttch. explain, she would begin with a dialogue with her brothers referable to herself, one that had formerly taken place-that little sister, Ewald remarks under Song of Solomon 8:10, stands here now grown up she took notice of that severe word formerly spoken by her brothers, and can now joyfully before all exclaim, taking up the same flowery language, that she is a wall, etc. But that a monologue should begin with a dialogue without any introduction, is an impossibility; in this case the poet ought to have left the expression, “of old my mother's sons said,” to be supplemented by the reader or hearer. It is true, at Song of Solomon 3:2; Song of Solomon 5:3, we have a former address introduced without any formal indication of the fact; but it is the address of the narrator herself. With Song of Solomon 8:8 there will thus begin a colloquy arising out of present circumstances. That in this conversation Song of Solomon 8:8 appertains to the brothers, is evident. This harsh entweder oder ( aut... aut) is not appropriate as coming from Shulamith's mouth; it is her brothers alone, as Hoelemann rightly remarks, who utter these words, as might have been expected from them in view of Song of Solomon 1:6. But does Song of Solomon 8:8 belong also to them? There may be two of them, says Hitzig, and the one may in Song of Solomon 8:9 reply to the question of the other in Song of Solomon 8:8; Shulamith, who has heard their conversation, suddenly interposes with Song of Solomon 8:10. But the transition from the first to the second scene is more easily explained if Shulamith proposes the question of Song of Solomon 8:8 for consideration. This is not set aside by Hitzig's questions: “Has she to determine in regard to her sister? and has she now for the first time come to do nothing in haste?” For (1) the dramatic figures of the Song follow each other chronologically, but not without blanks; and the poet does not at all require us to regard Song of Solomon 8:8 as Shulamith's first words after her entrance into her parental home; (2) but it is altogether seeming for Shulamith, who has now become independent, and who has been raised so high, to throw out this question of loving care for her sister. Besides, from the fact that with Song of Solomon 8:8 there commences the representation of a present occurrence, it is proved that the sister here spoken of is not Shulamith herself. If it were Shulamith herself, the words of Song of Solomon 8:8, Song of Solomon 8:9 would look back to what had previously taken place, which, as we have shown, is impossible. Or does Song of Solomon 6:9 require that we should think of Shulamith as having no sister? Certainly not, for so understood, these words would be purposeless. The “only one,” then, does not mean the only one numerically, but, as at Proverbs 4:3, it is emphatic (Hitzig); she is called by Solomon the “only one” of her mother in this sense, that she had not one her equal.

Thus it is Shulamith who here speaks, and she is not the “sister” referred to. The words, “we have a sister ... ,” spoken in the family circle, whether regarded as uttered by Shulamith or not, have something strange in them, for one member of a family does not need thus to speak to another. We expect: With regard to our sister, who is as yet little and not of full age, the question arises, What will be done when she has grown to maturity to guard her innocence? Thus the expression would have stood, but the poet separates it into little symmetrical sentences; for poetry present facts in a different style from prose. Hoelem. has on this remarked that the words are not to be translated: we have a little sister, which the order of the words וגו אחות ק would presuppose, Genesis 40:20; cf. 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 12:2 f.; Isaiah 26:1; Isaiah 33:21. “Little” is not immediately connected with “sister,” but follows it as an apposition; and this appositional description lays the ground for the question: We may be now without concern; but when she is grown up and will be courted, what then? “Little” refers to age, as at 2 Kings 5:2; cf. Genesis 44:20. The description of the child in the words, “she has no breasts,” has neither in itself nor particularly for Oriental feeling anything indecent in it (cf. mammae sororiarunt, Ezekiel 16:7). The ל following מה־נּעשׂה is here not thus purely the dat. commodi, as e.g., Isaiah 64:3 (to act for some one), but indiff. dat. (what shall we do for her?); but מה is, according to the connection, as at Genesis 27:37; 1 Samuel 10:2; Isaiah 5:4, equivalent to: What conducing to her advantage? Instead of בּיּום , the form בּיום lay syntactically nearer (cf. Exodus 6:28); the art. in בּיּום is, as at Ecclesiastes 12:3, understood demonst.: that day when she will be spoken for, i.e., will attract the attention of a suitor. בּ after דּבּר may have manifold significations ( vid., under Psalms 87:3); thus the general signification of “concerning,” 1 Samuel 19:3, is modified in the sense of courting a wife, 1 Samuel 25:39. The brothers now take speech in hand, and answer Shulamith's question as to what will have to be done for the future safety of their little sister when the time comes that she shall be sought for:

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9 If she be a wall,

We will build upon her a pinnacle of silver;

And if she be a door,

We will block her up with a board of cedar-wood.

The brothers are the nearest guardians and counsellors of the sister, and, particularly in the matter of marriage, have the precedence even of the father and mother, Genesis 24:50, Genesis 24:55; Genesis 34:6-8.. They suppose two cases which stand in contrast to each other, and announce their purpose with reference to each case. Hoelem. here affects a synonymous instead of the antithetic parallelism; for he maintains that אם ( ואם ) ... אם nowhere denotes a contrast, but, like sive... sive , essential indifference. But examples such as Deuteronomy 18:3 ( sive bovem, sive ovem ) are not applicable here; for this correl. אם ... אם , denoting essential equality, never begins the antecedents of two principal sentences, but always stands in the component parts of one principal sentence. Wherever ואם ... אם commences two parallel conditional clauses, the parallelism is always, according to the contents of these clauses, either synonymous, Genesis 31:50; Amos 9:2-4; Ecclesiastes 11:3 (where the first ואם signifies ac si , and the second sive ), or antithetic, Numbers 16:29 f.; Job 36:11 f.; Isaiah 1:19 f. The contrast between חומה (from חמה , Arab. ḥaman , Modern Syr. chamo , to preserve, protect) and דּלת (from דּלל , to hang loose, of doors, Proverbs 26:14, which move hither and thither on their hinges) is obvious. A wall stands firm and withstands every assault if it serves its purpose (which is here presupposed, where it is used as a figure of firmness of character). A door, on the contrary, is moveable; and though it be for the present closed ( דלת is intentionally used, and not פּתח , vid., Genesis 19:6), yet it is so formed that it can be opened again. A maiden inaccessible to seduction is like a wall, and one accessible to it is like a door. In the apodosis, Song of Solomon 8:9, the lxx correctly renders טירת by ἐπάλξεις ; Jerome, by propugnacula . But it is not necessary to read טירת . The verb טור , cogn. דור , signifies to surround, whence tirah (= Arab. duâr ), a round encampment, Genesis 25:16, and, generally, a habitation, Psalms 69:25; and then also, to range together, whence תּוּר , a rank, row (cf. Arab. thur and daur , which, in the manifoldness of their meanings, are parallel with the French tour ), or also tirah , which, Ezekiel 46:23 ( vid., Keil), denotes the row or layer of masonry, - in the passage before us, a row of battlements (Ew.), or a crown of the wall (Hitz.), i.e., battlements as a wreath on the summit of a wall. Is she a wall, - i.e., does she firmly and successfully withstand all immoral approaches? - then they will adorn this wall with silver pinnacles (cf. Isaiah 54:12), i.e., will bestow upon her the high honour which is due to her maidenly purity and firmness; silver is the symbol of holiness, as gold is the symbol of nobility. In the apodosis 9b, על צוּר is not otherwise meant than when used in a military sense of enclosing by means of besieging, but, like Isaiah 29:3, with the obj.-accus., of that which is pressed against that which is to be excluded; צור here means, forcibly to press against, as סגר , Genesis 2:21, to unite by closing up.

ארז לוּח is a board or plank (cf. Ezekiel 27:5, of the double planks of a ship's side) of cedar wood (cf. Zephaniah 2:14, ארזה , cedar wainscot). Cedar wood comes here into view not on account of the beautiful polish which it takes on, but merely because of its hardness and durability. Is she a door, i.e., accessible to seduction? They will enclose this door around with a cedar plank, i.e., watch her in such a manner that no seducer or lover will be able to approach her. By this morally stern but faithful answer, Shulamith is carried back to the period of her own maidenhood, when her brothers, with good intention, dealt severely with her. Looking back to this time, she could joyfully confess:

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10 I was a wall,

And my breasts like towers;

Then I became in his eyes

Like one who findeth peace.

In the language of prose, the statement would be: Your conduct is good and wise, as my own example shows; of me also ye thus faithfully took care; and that I met this your solicitude with strenuous self-preservation, has become, to my joy and yours, the happiness of my life. That in this connection not אני חומה , but חומה אני has to be used, is clear: she compares herself with her sister, and the praise she takes to herself she takes to the honour of her brothers. The comparison of her breasts to towers is suggested by the comparison of her person to a wall; Kleuker rightly remarks that here the comparison is not of thing with thing, but of relation with relation: the breasts were those of her person, as the towers were of the wall, which, by virtue of the power of defence which they conceal within themselves, never permit the enemy, whose attention they attract, to approach them. The two substantival clauses, murus et ubera mea instar turrium , have not naturally a retrospective signification, as they would in a historical connection ( vid., under Genesis 2:10); but they become retrospective by the following “then I became,” like Deuteronomy 26:5, by the historical tense following, where, however, it is to be remarked that the expression, having in itself no relation to time, which is incapable of being expressed in German, mentions the past not in a way that excludes the present, but as including it. She was a wall, and her breasts like the towers, i.e., all seductions rebounded from her, and ventured not near her awe-inspiring attractions; then ( אז , temporal, but at the same time consequent; thereupon, and for this reason, as at Psalms 40:8; Jeremiah 22:15, etc.) she became in his (Solomon's) eyes as one who findeth peace. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, she says here: he deemed it good to forbear any further attempts, and to let me remain in peace (Ewald, Hitz., and others). But how is that possible? מצא שׁלום בעיני is a variation of the frequently occurring מצא חן בעיני , which is used especially of a woman gaining the affections of a man, Esther 2:17; Deuteronomy 24:1; Jeremiah 31:2 f.; and the expression here used, “thus I was in his eyes as one who findeth peace” is only the more circumstantial expression for, “then I found ( אז מצאתי ) in his eyes peace,” which doubtless means more than: I brought it to this, that he left me further unmolested; שׁלום in this case, as syn. of חן , means inward agreement, confidence, friendship, as at Psalms 41:10; there it means, as in the salutation of peace and in a hundred other cases, a positive good. And why should she use שׁלום instead of חן , but that she might form a play upon the name which she immediately, Song of Solomon 8:11, thereafter utters, שׁלמה , which signifies, 1 Chronicles 22:9, “The man of peace.” That Shulamith had found shalom (peace) with Shelomoh (Solomon), cannot be intended to mean that uninjured she escaped from him, but that she had entered into a relation to him which seemed to her a state of blessed peace. The delicate description, “in his eyes,” is designed to indicate that she appeared to him in the time of her youthful discipline as one finding peace. The כ is כ veritatis , i.e., the comparison of the fact with its idea, Isaiah 29:2, or of the individual with the general and common, Isaiah 13:6; Ezekiel 26:10; Zechariah 14:3. Here the meaning is, that Shulamith appeared to him corresponding to the idea of one finding peace, and thus as worthy to find peace with him. One “finding peace” is one who gains the heart of a man, so that he enters into a relation of esteem and affection for her. This generalization of the idea also opposes the notion of a history of seduction. מוחאת is from the ground-form matsiat , the parallel form to מוצאת , 2 Samuel 18:22. Solomon has won her, not by persuasion or violence; but because she could be no other man's, he entered with her into the marriage covenant of peace (cf. Proverbs 2:17 with Isaiah 54:10).

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The king who seems to this point to have silently looked on in inmost sympathy, now, on being addressed by Shulamith, takes speech in hand; he does not expressly refer to her request, but one perceives from his words that he heard it with pleasure. He expresses to her the wish that she would gratify the companions of her youth who were assembled around her, as well as himself, with a song, such as in former times she was wont to sing in these mountains and valleys.

13 O thou (who art) at home in the gardens,

Companions are listening for thy voice;

Let me hear!

We observe that in the rural paradise with which she is surrounded, she finds herself in her element. It is a primary feature of her character which herein comes to view: her longing after quietness and peace, her love for collectedness of mind and for contemplation; her delight in thoughts of the Creator suggested by the vegetable world, and particularly by the manifold soft beauty of flowers; she is again once more in the gardens of her home, but the address, “O thou at home in the gardens!” denotes that wherever she is, these gardens are her home as a fundamental feature of her nature. The חברים are not Solomon's companions, for she has come hither with Solomon alone, leaning on his arm. Also it is indicated in the expression: “are listening for thy voice,” that they are such as have not for a long time heard the dear voice which was wont to cheer their hearts. The חבר are the companions of the former shepherdess and keeper of a vineyard, Song of Solomon 1:6 f., the playmates of her youth, the friends of her home. With a fine tact the poet does not represent Solomon as saying חבריך nor חברינוּ : the former would be contrary to the closeness of his relation to Shulamith, the latter contrary to the dignity of the king. By חברים there is neither expressed a one-sided reference, nor is a double-sided excluded. That “for thy voice” refers not to her voice as speaking, but as the old good friends wish, as singing, is evident from השׁמיעני in connection with Song of Solomon 2:14, where also קולך is to be supplied, and the voice of song is meant. She complies with the request, and thus begins:

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