2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which come up from the washing-pool,
All of which are paired,
And not one among them is bereaved.
3 Like a braid of scarlet are thy lips,
And thy mouth is lovely:
- ing accords best with the comparison
here used, and leaves to the preposition [HE: min/] its natural signification. The omission of [HE: har] in the Sept., Arabic, and a few MSS., is evidently owing to the carelessness of a transcriber.
2. Thy teeth, &c. The compliment passed upon the black hair is followed by another on the white teeth: "Thy teeth resemble in whiteness woolly sheep just washed." This comparison will appear more striking when we remember that the wool of Scripture is proverbial for its whiteness, and is placed in juxtaposition with the colour of snow, Isa. i. 18; Dan. vii. 9; Rev. i. 14; Book of Enoch xlvi. 1. The Sept., which is followed by many modern commentators, takes the comparison to be between the shorn skin of the sheep and the teeth; but this is untenable. For, 1. The skin of shorn sheep can never have the whiteness which the context here demands; 2. Shorn sheep would yield a very incongruous figure, if teeth were compared with them; 3. Sheep, as now, were generally washed before and not after they were shorn; 4. The passage in vi. 6, shows that [HE: q^exv.bvOt] is merely a poetical epithet for [HE: r^eHEliym/], not because they were then shorn, but because they are periodically shorn. The explanation of [HE: q^exv.bvOt] by well numbered (Rashi), or by [HE: yS lhn/ mdh 'Ht k'ylv nHxbt kl 'Ht kmv] [HE: Hbrth], same size (Kimchi, Ibn Ezra), are against vi. 6.
All of which are paired. That is, each upper tooth has its corresponding lower one; thus they, as it were, appear in pairs, like this flock of white sheep, each of which keeps to its mate, as they come up from the washing-pool. And no one of them is deprived of its fellow, i.e. no tooth is deprived of its corresponding one, just as none of the sheep is bereaved of its companion. The Hiphil of [HE: t.o'am/], to be double, to be pairs (Exod. xxvi. 24; xxxvi. 29), is to make double, to make pairs, to appear paired. [HE: S/ak.ul.oh] is deprived, bereaved, Jer. xviii. 21. On the masculine suffixes in [HE: k.ul.om/] and [HE: b.ohem/], referring to [HE: q^exv.bvOt], fem., see supra, ii. 7. The words [HE: S/ek.ul.om/] and [HE: S/ak.ul.oh] form a paranomasia; see i. 2. The rendering of [HE: mat^e'iymvOt] by [HE: klm/ yvldvt t'vmym/], all bearing twins (Kimchi, &c.), which some try to justify by submitting that sheep as well as goats in the East frequently bear twins (Arist. Hist. Anim. i. 6, 19; Theocret. i. 25; iii. 34), is incompatible with the figure. The teeth surely, which are here compared to the flock, cannot be said to bear twins like the sheep. Those who attempt to get over this difficulty by referring it to the rows of the teeth, are, to say the least, guilty of introducing a new subject.
3. Thy mouth is lovely. [HE: mid^eb.or] is translated by the Sept., Syriac, Vulg., Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, speech, language; but this is incompatible with the description here given, which depicts the members of the body, and not their actions. It is therefore more consonant with the context to take [HE: mid^eb.or] as a poetical expression for the instrument of speech; not the tongue (Schultens, Kleuker, Döpke), which is kept within the mouth, and not when put out ([HE: no'a:voh]) beautiful; but the mouth itself, (Ewald, Gesenius, De Wette, Umbreit, Rosenmüller, Meier, Philippson, &c.) The objection of Magnus (who translates it voice), and of Hitzig (who translates it palate), that the rendering of mouth would produce tautology, inasmuch as the mouth consists of the lips, and these have already been described, is
