Both new and old;
I have reserved them, O my beloved, for thee!
Chap. VIII. 1 Oh that thou wert as my brother,
As one who had been nourished in the bosom of my mother!
If I found thee in the street I would kiss thee,
And should no more be reproached.
2 I would lead thee thence,
I would bring thee into the house of my mother;
most part forked. The fruit, when ripe, in the beginning of May, is of the size and colour of a small apple, exceedingly ruddy, and of a most agreeable flavour." See Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit.; Wiener, Bib. Dict. s. v. Here, however, this plant is mentioned merely to fill out the picture of charming and highly prized plants, without reference to any supposed internal properties, and has evidently been suggested by the preceding [HE: d.vOdiy], beloved. [HE: d.v.Od'iym/], lit. love-apples, is the plural of [HE: d.v.day], from the root [HE: d.v.d], to love, with the termination [HE: —ay], like [HE: lv.lo'vOt], the plural of [HE: lv.lay], from the root [HE: lv.l]. Gesen. § 93, 6, 6; Ewald, § 189 g. [HE: v^e`al p.^etaHEynv.] is well explained by Rashbam, [HE: 'xl ptH prds Slnv], "in our garden, close to our door," &c. [HE: `al] has not unfrequently the sense of neighbourhood and contiguity. Gesen. Lexicon, [HE: `al] 3. Others however render [HE: `al], over, i. e. "and over our doors grow," &c.; others again translate in, i.e. "in our house are," &c., taking [HE: p.etaH] in the sense of house; comp. Prov. xiv. 19, but with less probability. Houbigant's transposition of letters, viz. [HE: `l tpHynv], in nostris malis aureis, instead of [HE: `l ptHynv], is an idle conjecture.
1. Oh that thou wert as my brother, &c. The charming description which the Shulamite gave of their happiness when at home, recalled to her mind the obstacles which they met with, even there; and hence she is led to wish that he had sustained to her the relation of a brother, that, whether in the street or the house, none might misinterpret or interrupt the manifestation of their attachment. [HE: miy yit.En/] is used to express the optative. Comp. Deut. v. 29; xxviii. 67; Ps. xiv. 7; Job vi. 8; Gesen. § 136, 1; Ewald, § 329 c. [HE: k.^e'oH] is the accusative. The rendering of the Septuag., [GR: Ti\s dô|/ê se, a)delfide/ mou, thêla/zonta mastou\s mêtro/s mou]; and Luther, "O dass ich dich, mein Bruder, der du meiner Mutter Brüste saugest, draussen fände," are wrong. [HE: yOvnEq S\^edEy 'im.iy], does not mean "an infant still sucking the breasts." (Grotius, Gill, Good, Williams, &c.), but "one who had sucked and is now a youth;" it is the second accusative to [HE: miy yit.en^ek/o], and stands in parallelism with [HE: 'oH], brother; like the participle [HE: yOvledet] (which does not mean one who just gave birth), and [HE: 'Em/=], vide supra, chap. vi. 9. [HE: 'em^exo'ok/o] is conditional, with the particle [HE: 'im/=] implied, Judg. xi. 36; Prov. xxiv. 10; Ewald, § 367 b. [HE: gam/] is used poetically for [HE: v^e], and, Judg. v. 4; Joel i. 12. [HE: yobuzv.]: the third person is used to express the indeterminate third person, the passive in English. Gen. xli. 14; Gesen. § 157, 3. For [HE: liy], me, five MSS. and two editions read [HE: lok/^e], thee, which Ewald adopts. But this is against the majority of MSS. and all the versions, and does not at all improve the sense.
2. I would lead thee, &c. As a brother, she could unreservedly bring him from the spot, where she met him in the street, to her mother's house. We must supply [HE: miS/.om/], thence, before [HE: 'e:n^ehog^ek/o]; so Rashbam. Simple as the word [HE: t.^elam^edEniy] seems to be, it has nevertheless produced a variety of renderings. The Septuagint and Syriac, followed by Percy, entirely omit it, and interpolate here [HE: v^e'el Heder hvOrotiy], and into the apartment of her who gave me birth, from chap. iii. 4; after [HE: bEyt 'im.iy],
