For my head is filled with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.
3 I have put off my tunic,
How shall I put it on?
I have washed my feet,
How shall I soil them?
4 My beloved withdrew his hand from the door hole,
And my heart was disquieted within me.
5 I immediately arose to open to my beloved,
And my hands dropped with myrrh,
been drenched with dew. The dew falls so copiously in the East, during certain months, that it saturates the clothes like rain. See Judges vi. 38; Rosenmüller, Orient. i. 122; Winer, Bib. Dict. s. v. A similar passage occurs in Anacreon, iii. 10, where love is represented as standing at night behind the door, begging for admittance, and pleading the same excuses.
[GR: A)/noige, fêsi/
Bre/fos ei)mi/, mê\ fo/bêsai
Bre/chomai de/, ka)se/lênon
Kata\ nu/kta pepla/nêmai.]
"'Fear not,' said he, with piteous din,
'Pray ope the door and let me in:
A poor unshelter'd boy am I,
For help who knows not where to fly:
Lost in the dark, and with the dews,
All cold and wet, that midnight brews."
Comp. also Propert. i. 16, 23; Ovid Amor. ii. 19, 21. [HE: tam.otiy], my perfect one, is well explained by Rosenmüller by [HE: mv.m/ 'Eyn/ b.ok/^e], there is no fault in thee, iv. 7; 2 Sam. xiv. 25.
3. I have put off my tunic; was the answer she gave in her dream. [HE: k.ut.Onet], [GR: chitô/n], tunic, is an inner garment, commonly of linen, descending to the ankles, which is taken off when one retires. On the costume of the Hebrews, see Rosenmüller, Orient. ii. 19 ; Winer, Bib. Dict.; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit. s. v.; Saalschütz, Archäeologie der Hebräer, vol. i. c. 2.
I have washed my feet, &c. In the East, where people wear sandals, which protect the soles only, or go barefoot, as in the passage before us, the feet soon get dirty and parched; it is therefore essential and refreshing to wash the feet after much walking (Gen. xviii. 4; xix. 2), or before retiring to rest: remembering this, we can appreciate the hospitality shown to travellers in providing for the washing of their feet, Judges xix. 21. On the masculine suffix in [HE: 'a:Tan.^epam/], referring to the feminine [HE: rag^elay], see iv. 9.
4. My beloved withdrew his hand, &c. Hearing her excuses for not getting up, he at last grew weary and ceased knocking, which immediately caused her uneasiness. The words [HE: S/olaH yodvO min/ haHvOr] are better translated, he sent away his hand from the hole = withdrew; so the Sept. and Rashbam, [HE: hhzyrh l`xmv mn/ hHvr bdlt], he took his hand back from the hole in the door. The expression [HE: mE`iym/], like [HE: raHa:miym/], has not the modern sense of bowels, which is restricted to the lower viscera, but denotes, like [GR: ta\ spla/gchna] in Greek, the upper viscera, comprising the heart, lungs, liver, &c. Hence it is used for the heart alone as the seat of passion, Isa. lxiii. 15; Jer. xxxi. 20; and for [HE: nepeS/], soul, Job xxx. 27; Ps. xl. 9. [HE: homoh], to hum, to make a noise, which is frequently used for the roaring produced by the waves of the troubled sea (Isa. li. 15; Ps. xlvi. 4; Jer. v. 22), is employed to denote the motion of an agitated heart. With upwards of fifty MSS. and several editions we read [HE: `olay], in me, instead of [HE: `oloyv], to him; the phrase thus exactly corresponds to [HE: t.ehe:miy nap^eS/iy `oloy], Ps. xlii. 6, 12.
5. My hands dropped with myrrh, &c. Alarmed at his ceasing to knock, she flew at once to open the door, and in trying to unfasten it, her hands came
