The keepers of the walls stripped me of my veiling garment.
8 I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
If ye shall find my beloved,
What will ye tell him?
Tell him that I am sick of love.
DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM.
9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
O thou fairest among women?
What is thy beloved, more than another beloved,
That thou thus adjurest us?
THE SHULAMITE.
10 My beloved is white and ruddy,
Distinguished above thousands;
cloak. See Schroeder, Vestit. Mul. p. 368; Gesen. on Isa. iii. 23; Winer, Bib. Dict. s. v.; Saalschütz, Archaëologie der Hebräer, vol. i. p. 28.
8. I adjure you, &c. Having mentioned the indifference with which she had treated her beloved, the Shulamite is anxious to impress upon the court-ladies that this was in a dream, and that in reality, so far from her affections being abated, she was as dotingly attached to him as ever; and begs of them, if they should see him, to tell him so. For the masculine termination in [HE: t.im^ex^e'v. 'et^ekem/] and [HE: t.ag.iydv.], see ii. 7. We must supply [HE: hag.iydv. lvO], tell him, after [HE: mah t.ag.iyvdv. lvO], what will you tell him? The omission is designedly made, to give animation to the request. The emendation proposed by Houbigant, to read [HE: hgydnv], instead of [HE: Hgydv], is gratuitous, like all his emendations. The Sept. adds [GR: e)n tai=s dyna/mesin kai\ e)n tai=s i)schy/sesin tou= a)grou=], "by the powers, and by the virtues of the field," the false rendering of [HE: b.ix^ebo'vOt 'vO b.^e'ay^elvOt haS\.odeh], from the preceding formula of adjuration.
9. What is thy beloved, &c. The great solicitude manifested by the Shulamite for her beloved, induces the court ladies to ask what peculiar attractions there were in him more than in an ordinary lover, to cause such an unusual manifestation of feeling, and thus an opportunity is afforded her to give a description of him. It is evident from this question of the court ladies that Solomon is not the beloved of whom the Shulamite has been speaking in the preceding verses. For surely these court ladies knew the aspect and character of Solomon better than the Shulamite. This is, moreover, established beyond doubt from ch. vi. 2, 3, where the damsel, at the end of the description, designedly states that the object of her delineation and attachment, is the shepherd. The particle [HE: min/], prefixed to [HE: dvOd], with which the comparison is made, expresses the comparative, Gesen. § 191, 1. For [HE: hay.opoh b.an.oS/iym/], see i. 8, and for the form [HE: hiS/^eb.a`^et.onv.], Ewald, § 249, d.
10. My beloved is white, &c. The Shulamite answers this question by giving a very graphic description of her beloved. The colour of his countenance and body is such a beautiful mingling of white and red as is seldom seen, and by which he is distinguished above thousands. A similar description is found in Virg. Æn. xii. 65, seq.
Flagrantes perfusa genas: cui plurimus ignem
Subjecit rubor, et calefacta per ora cucurrit.
Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro,
Si quis ebur, aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multâ
Alba rosâ; tales virgo dabat ore colores.
"At this a flood of tears Lavinia shed;
A crimson blush her beauteous face o'erspread.
Varying her cheeks by turns with white and red.
The driving colours, never at a stay,
Run here and there, and flush and fade away.
Delightful change! thus Indian ivory shows,
Which, with the bordering paint of purple glows;
Or lilies damask by the neighbouring rose."
Comp. also Ovid. Am. ii.; Eleg. v. 39;
