CHAP. IV.

VER. 1.-Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thor art fair, thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks; thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead.

FROM the third verse of the second chapter down to this, we have seen nothing of the Beloved in person. We have indeed met with some joyful soliloquies of the fair one concerning him, or lofty descriptions of his goodness and greatness, partly put into her mouth, and partly from the pen of the writer. But here he again makes his appearance, and in his former endearing style, Behold thou art fair, my love, &c. It would be idle to ask, and superfluous to explain, in the sense I contend for, what this fairness is, or whence it comes. The forty-fifth psalm pays this same compliment to the king Messiah', and he sends the commendation down to his church. Is it not he who also gives the reality? What a fund of praise, what a source of joy is here, that he first bestows his gifts upon

us, and then commends us for these very gifts? And shall his church, shall any member of his church imitate the slothful fool in the parable', and call him an hard man, that reaps where he hath not sown, and gathers where he hath not 'strawed?' There is an addition here to the dove's eyes which has some obscurity in it-thou hast dove's eyes, , mebod letzamtek, which occurs in two other places, in both which we read it as here, within thy locks,' the LXX. EXTOS TYS σIWITNOEWS 08, 'without thy silence,' Arias Montanus, intra comam tuam,' within thy hair,' Jerom and the Vulgate, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet, from or without, that which is hid within;' and other expositors, now that thy veil is removed,'—all differing from one another, and rather confounding than instructing the reader. What is the real meaning, therefore, of this addition, I will not take upon me to determine, though I am far from supposing it not material. The noun, tzmt, by its construction, looks to have affinity with, and even to be derived from, the verb, tzum, (which in many of its deflexions loses the middle radical, and in all of them signifies) to fast;' so the sense may be, thy eyes are dove's eyes,' (see above, ch. i. 15.) for simplicity or constancy, because of, or through thy fasting, temperance, or self-denial. Again, in the other passages where it occurs, (to discuss this phrase

I St Matth. xxv. 24.

2 Ver. 3. of this chapter, and ch. vi. 7.

phrase at once), thy temples are like a piece of a 'pomegranate within thy locks.' The Hebrew for temples is, raqth, from P, raq, empty or lank; and so called, say the dictionaries, from the make of that part of the head. This perhaps might be adjusted to the simile of a piece of a pomegranate, if we distinctly knew what all the qualities of the scripture, remun, which we call pomegranate,

were.

If it be splendid, shining and beautiful, as the current use of it seems to indicate, this needs not hinder the comparison; and the description in all the three places will run-thy eyes, like the dove's, are constant and fixt, and thy temples are beautiful, like pieces of pomegranate, because of thy fasting, thy abstinence from every hurtful gratification.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead.-Here is another dark metaphor, in the literal sense, and the posture of goats hanging, when they brouze, on the sides of a mountain,' is, one should think, a strange resemblance of a fine woman's hair hanging carelessly down in jetty curls.' The word for appear occurs no where but here, and in the 6th chapter', so cannot have its sense determined. Only, from its position in both places, it expresses some relation that goats have, or may have, to a mountain. But why is Mount Gilead singled out? Were there no more mountains known to Solomon, that had goats brouzing on them? or is there

1 Chap. vi. 5.

a

6

a particular reason for this selection? I should think there were. Mount Gilead was a famous place, both from its name, and its product. The so much celebrated balm grew there; which made the prophet Jeremiah ask with surprise, Is there ' no balm in Gilead,' no physician there'? And again, says he, Go up to Gilead, and take balm":" As far back as Joseph's time, Gilead was the staple of the balm trade 3; and, to this day, balm of Gilead' is proverbial. The very name of it too is significant, as the history tells us *; and TM ", gal od, Heb. Bour pagrus, LXX. is the heap-witness. The word y, od, is testimony, a term of great note in the Mosaic institution, and much used by the prophets. But what connexion is there, in this light, between goats and Gilead? I have already hinted, that goats, as distinguished from sheep, may be emblematical of the Gentile aliens, and so may be described, as flocking to, hanging upon, appearing about the gilead, the testimony, oracle, or appointed institution, for its medicinal, cordial, cleansing balm; hence may be said to resemble the hair, the externals of the head, not as implying beauty or ornament, (to which the word used here, shor, in no acceptation of it has the least tendency), but as sticking to the head, as it were, and deriving nourishment from it. This word shor

is

Chap. viii. 22.

3 Gen. xxxvii. 25.
5 On ch. i. 8.

2 Chap. xlvi. 11.

4 Gen. xxxi. 47.

Ephes. ii. 12.

is likewise a gate';' and, in application to the church, gives a comprehensive idea of (the goats, which shor sometimes metaphorically stands for) the Gentiles coming in. So extensive are the allusions of this divine speaker, both for description and prophecy, and so highly instructive in the spiritual design, but so uncouth, and after all the possibility of foreign aid, so unintelligible in the way of literal accommodation.

VER. 2.-Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which come up from the washing, whereof every one bare twins, and none is barren among them.

This is one of the many similes in the Song that is much extolled for its beauty of thought and propriety of application: But to this the translations have greatly contributed. We have the same simile repeated in the 6th chapter, with the addition of sheep in the original, which is not in this place, but may be justified by the other passage. The grammatical construction of the latter clause, adopted sometimes even upon the pastoral plan, gives the true meaning, they come up from the washing two and two as twins, none has lost his fellow, which is both juster and more striking than what we read about bearing twins, and barrenness. And here I might take notice of the quick and immediate transition from the

1 See Psalm ix. 15. xxiv. 7. 9. cxviii. 19. 20. cxxii. 2, &c.