Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Song of Solomon 1:7 - 1:7

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Song of Solomon 1:7 - 1:7


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

These words (Son 1:5-6) are addressed to the ladies of the palace, who look upon her with wonder. That which now follows is addressed to her beloved:

7 O tell me, thou whom my soul loveth: where feedest thou?

Where causest thou it (thy flock) to lie down at noon?

Among the flocks of thy companions!

The country damsel has no idea of the occupation of a king. Her simplicity goes not beyond the calling of a shepherd as of the fairest and the highest. She thinks of the shepherd of the people as the shepherd of sheep. Moreover, Scripture also describes governing as a tending of sheep; and the Messiah, of whom Solomon is a type, is specially represented as the future Good Shepherd. If now we had to conceive of Solomon as present from the beginning of the scene, then here in Son 1:7 would Shulamith say that she would gladly be alone with him, far away from so many who are looking on her with open eyes; and, indeed, in some country place where alone she feels at home. The entreaty “O tell me” appears certainly to require (cf. Gen 37:19) the presence of one to whom she addresses herself. But, on the other hand, the entreaty only asks that he should let her know where he is; she longs to know where his occupation detains him, that she may go out and seek him. Her request is thus directed toward the absent one, as is proved by Son 1:8. The vocat., “O thou whom my soul loveth,” is connected with אַתָּה, which lies hid in הַגִּידָה (“inform thou”). It is a circumlocution for “beloved” (cf. Neh 13:26), or “the dearly beloved of my soul” (cf. Jer 12:7). The entreating request, indica quaeso mihi ubi pascis, reminds one of Gen 37:16, where, however, ubi is expressed by אֵיפֹה, while here by אֵיכָה, which in this sense is hap leg For ubi = אֵיפֹה, is otherwise denoted only by אֵיכֹה (אֵיכוֹ), 2Ki 6:13, and usually אַיֵּה, North Palest., by Hosea אֱהִי. This אֵיכָה elsewhere means quomodo, and is the key-word of the Kîna, as אֵיךְ is of the Mashal (the satire); the Song uses for it, in common with the Book of Esther, אֵיכָכָה. In themselves כֹה and כָה, which with אֵי preceding, are stamped as interrog. in a sense analogous to hic, ecce, κεῖνος, and the like; the local, temporal, polite sense rests only on a conventional usus loq., Böttch. §530. She wishes to know where he feeds, viz., his flock, where he causes it (viz., his flock) to lie down at mid-day. The verb רָבַץ (R. רב, with the root signif. of condensation) is the proper word for the lying down of a four-footed animal: complicatis pedibus procumbere (cubare); Hiph. of the shepherd, who causes the flock to lie down; the Arab. rab'a is the name for the encampment of shepherds. The time for encamping is the mid-day, which as the time of the double-light, i.e., the most intense light in its ascending and descending, is called צהֲרַיִם. שַׁלָּמָה, occurring only here, signifies nam cur, but is according to the sense = ut ne, like לָמָּה אֲשֶׁר, Dan 1:10 (cf. Ezr 7:23); לָמָּה, without Dag. forte euphone., is, with the single exception of Job 7:20, always milra, while with the Dag. it is milel, and as a rule, only when the following word begins with הע''א carries forward the tone to the ult. Shulamith wishes to know the place where her beloved feeds and rests his flock, that she might not wander about among the flocks of his companions seeking and asking for him. But what does כְּעֹטְיָה mean? It is at all events the part. act. fem. of עָטַי which is here treated after the manner of the strong verb, the kindred form to the equally possible עֹטָה (from 'âṭaja) and עֹטִיָּה. As for the meaning, instar errabundae (Syr., Symm., Jerome, Venet., Luther) recommends itself; but עטה must then, unless we wish directly to adopt the reading כְּטֹעֲיָה (Böttch.), have been transposed from טעה (תעה), which must have been assumed if עטה, in the usual sense of velare (cf. עָטַף), did not afford an appropriate signification. Indeed, velans, viz., sese, cannot denote one whom consciousness veils, one who is weak or fainting (Gesen. Lex.), for the part. act. expresses action, not passivity. But it can denote one who covers herself (the lxx, perhaps, in this sense ὡς περιβαλλομένη), because she mourns (Rashi); or after Gen 38:14 (cf. Martial, 9:32) one who muffles herself up, because by such affected apparent modesty she wishes to make herself known as a Hierodoule or harlot. The former of these significations is not appropriate; for to appear as mourning does not offend the sense of honour in a virtuous maiden, but to create the appearance of an immodest woman is to her intolerable; and if she bears in herself the image of an only beloved, she shrinks in horror from such a base appearance, not only as a debasing of herself, but also as a desecration of this sanctuary in her heart. Shulamith calls entreatingly upon him whom her soul loveth to tell her how she might be able directly to reach him, without feeling herself wounded in the consciousness of her maidenhood and of the exclusiveness of her love. It is thereby supposed that the companions of her only beloved among the shepherds might not treat that which to her is holy with a holy reserve, - a thought to which Hattendorff has given delicate expression in his exposition of the Song, 1867. If Solomon were present, it would be difficult to understand this entreating call. But he is not present, as is manifest from this, that she is not answered by him, but by the daughters of Jerusalem.