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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Song of Solomon 7:4 - 7:4
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4a Thy neck like an ivory tower.
The article in חֵשַּׁן may be that designating species (vid., under Son 1:11); but, as at Son 7:5 and Son 4:4, it appears to be also here a definite tower which the comparison has in view: one covered externally with ivory tablets, a tower well known to all in and around Jerusalem, and visible far and wide, especially when the sun shone on it; had it been otherwise, as in the case of the comparison following, the locality would have been more definitely mentioned. So slender, so dazzlingly white, is imposing, and so captivating to the eye did Shulamith's neck appear. These and the following figures would be open to the objection of being without any occasion, and monstrous, if they referred to an ordinary beauty; but they refer to Solomon's spouse, they apply to a queen, and therefore are derived from that which is most splendid in the kingdom over which, along with him, she rules; and in this they have the justification of their grandeur.
4ba Thine eyes pools in Heshbon,
At the gate of the populous (city).
Hesbhon, formerly belonging to the Amorites, but at this time to the kingdom of Solomon, lay about 5 1/2 hours to the east of the northern point of the Dead Sea, on an extensive, undulating, fruitful, high table-land, with a far-reaching prospect. Below the town, now existing only in heaps of ruins, a brook, which here takes it rise, flows westward, and streams toward the Ghôr as the Nahr Hesbán. It joins the Jordan not far above its entrance into the Dead Sea. The situation of the town was richly watered. There still exists a huge reservoir of excellent masonry in the valley, about half a mile from the foot of the hill on which the town stood. The comparison here supposes two such pools, but which are not necessarily together, though both are before the gate, i.e., near by, outside the town. Since שַׁעַר, except at Isa 14:31, is fem., רַבִּים־בִּים, in the sense of עָם רַבָּתִי, Lam 1:1 (cf. for the non-determin. of the adj., Eze 21:25), is to be referred to the town, not to the gate (Hitz.); Blau's
(Note: In Merx' Archiv. III 355.)
conjectural reading, bath-'akrabbim, does not recommend itself, because the craggy heights of the “ascent of Akrabbim” (Num 34:4; Jos 15:3), which obliquely cross
(Note: Vid., Robinson's Phys. Geogr. p. 51.)
the Ghôr to the south of the Dead Sea, and from remote times formed the southern boundary of the kingdom of the Amorites (Jdg 1:36), were too far off, and too seldom visited, to give its name to a gate of Heshbon. But generally the crowds of men at the gate and the topography of the gate are here nothing to the purpose; the splendour of the town, however, is for the figure of the famed cisterns like a golden border. בְּרֵכָה (from בָּרַךְ, to spread out, vid., Genesis, p. 98; Fleischer in Levy, I 420b) denotes a skilfully built round or square pool. The comparison of the eyes to a pool means, as Wetstein
(Note: Zeitschr. für allgem. Erdkunde, 1859, p. 157 f.)
remarks, “either thus glistening like a water-mirror, or thus lovely in appearance, for the Arabian knows no greater pleasure than to look upon clear, gently rippling water.” Both are perhaps to be taken together; the mirroring glance of the moist eyes (cf. Ovid, De Arte Am. ii. 722):
“Adspicies obulos tremulo fulgore micantes,
Ut sol a liquida saepe refulget aqua”
and the spell of the charm holding fast the gaze of the beholder.
4bb Thy nose like the tower of Lebanon,
Which looks towards Damascus.
This comparison also places us in the midst of the architectural and artistic splendours of the Solomonic reign. A definite town is here meant; the art. determines it, and the part. following appositionally without the art., with the expression “towards Damascus” defining it more nearly (vid., under Son 3:6), describes it. הַלְּמָנוֹן designates here “the whole Alpine range of mountains in the north of the land of Israel” (Furrer); for a tower which looks in the direction of Damascus (פְּנֵי, accus., as אֶת־פְּנֵי, 1Sa 22:4) is to be thought of as standing on one of the eastern spurs of Hermon, or on the top of Amana (Son 4:8), whence the Amana (Barada) takes its rise, whether as a watch-tower (2Sa 8:6), or only as a look-out from which might be enjoyed the paradisaical prospect. The nose gives to the face especially its physiognomical expression, and conditions its beauty. Its comparison to a tower on a lofty height is occasioned by the fact that Shulamith's nose, without being blunt or flat, formed a straight line from the brow downward, without bending to the right or left (Hitzig), a mark of symmetrical beauty combined with awe-inspiring dignity. After the praise of the nose it was natural to think of Carmel; Carmel is a promontory, and as such is called anf el-jebel (“nose of the mountain-range”).