traditional reading סמדר (not סמדר) is unfavourable to this view; the middle ā accordingly, as in צלצל, presents itself as an ante-tone vowel (Ewald, §154a), and the stem-word appears as a quadril. which may be the expansion of סדּר, to range, put in order in the sense of placing asunder, unfolding. Symm. renders the word by οἰνάνθη, and the Talm. idiom shows that not only the green five-leaved blossoms of the vine were so named, but also the fruit-buds and the first shoots of the grapes. Here, as the words “they diffuse fragrance” (as at 7:14 of the mandrakes) show, the vine-blossom is meant which fills the vineyard with an incomparably delicate fragrance. At the close of the invitation to enjoy the spring, the call “Rise up,” etc., with which it began, is repeated. The Chethı̂b לכי, if not an error in writing, justly set aside by the Kerı̂, is to be read לכי (cf. Syr. bechi, in thee, levotechi, to thee, but with occult i) - a North Palestinism for לך, like 2Ki 4:2, where the Kerı̂ has substituted the usual form (vid., under Ps 103 introd.) for this very dialectic form, which is there undoubtedly original.
Verse 14
Solomon further relates how he drew her to himself out of her retirement:
My dove in the clefts of the rock,
In the hiding-place of the cliff;
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice!
For thy voice is sweet and thy countenance comely. “Dove” (for which Castellio, columbula, like vulticulum, voculam) is a name of endearment which Shulamith shares with the church of God, Psa 74:19; cf. Psa 56:1; Hos 7:11. The wood-pigeon builds its nest in the clefts of the rocks and other steep rocky places, Jer 48:28.[1]
That Shulamith is thus here named, shows that, far removed from intercourse with the world, her home was among the mountains. חגוי, from חגו, or also חגוּ, requires a verb הגה = (Arab.) khajja,
- ↑ Wetstein's Reisebericht, p. 182: “If the Syrian wood-pigeon does not find a pigeon-tower, περιστερεῶνα, it builds its nest in the hollows of rocky precipices, or in the walls of deep and wide fountains.” See also his Nord-arabien, p. 58: “A number of scarcely accessible mountains in Arabia are called alkunnat, a rock-nest.”
