Thou shouldst be my teacher,
I would cause thee to drink
Of the aromatic wine,
Of my pomegranate juice.
3 Let his left hand be under my head,
And his right hand support me!
4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Neither to incite nor to excite my affection
Till it desires another love.
the house of my mother. Ibn Ezra, the Authorized Version, Kleuker, Döderlein, Hitzig, &c., supply [HE: 'a:S/er], who, before [HE: t.^elam.^edEniy], and refer it to [HE: 'im.iy], my mother. But this interrupts the construction, and, against the scope of the description, introduces the mother as an actress. Hodgson and the editor of Calmet, strangely enough, render it Talmudni, as a proper name of the maiden's mother. The most natural way seems to be to take it with the Vulgate, Chaldee, Rashbam, Luther, Ewald, Döpke, De Wette, Delitzsch, Hengstenberg, Philippson, &c., as the second person masculine.
I would cause thee to drink, &c. On the aromatic wine, see supra, chap. vii. 3. The pomegranate-juice was and still is a favourite beverage in the East. "The Orientals," says Dr. Kitto, "indulge largely in beverages made with fresh juice of various kinds of fruits. Among these, sherbet made with pomegranate-juice is particularly esteemed, and, from its agreeable and cooling acidity, the present writer was himself accustomed to prefer it to any other drink of this description." [HE: yayin/], is either an anomalous construct (Gesenius; Fürst, Lex. s. v.), or the absolute, and [HE: hareqaH], apposition in the accusative. Compare [HE: mayim/ laHax/], 1 Kings xx. 27; Gesen. § 116, 6, Rem. b; Ewald, § 287 h. [HE: 'eS/oq^ek/o] and [HE: 'a:S/^eq^ek/o] are a paranomasia, vide supra, chap. i. 3. [HE: `asiys rim.Oniy], my pomegranate-juice, i.e. which I myself have prepared. The noun in the genitive, expressing the quality of the nominative, has the suffix; compare [HE: har qod^eS/iy], my holy mountain, Ps. ii. 6; Gesen. § 121 b; Ewald, § 291 b. From an oversight of this most probably arose the readings of [HE: rmnym/] or [HE: rmvnym/] (several MSS.), [HE: rim.Onay] (Vulgate, Syriac), the supposition that [HE: rim.Oniy] is an adjective (Schultens), and the opinion that it is an abbreviated plural from [HE: rimOniym/], like [HE: m.in.iy] for [HE: min.iym/], (Ps. xlv. 9, Meier, Fürst, Lexicon, [HE: m], 3 b.)
3. Let his left hand, &c. Exhausted with the attempt to describe her unfailing attachment for her beloved shepherd, an attachment far deeper than external circumstances permit her to manifest, the Shulamite desires that no other hand should raise her drooping head, no other arm support her enfeebled frame, than those of her beloved; compare chap. ii. 6.
4. I adjure you, &c. This last affecting scene, having brought the Shulamite's struggle to a successful termination, is closed by her adjuring the court ladies as before (ii. 7, and v. 3), to make no more attempt to draw her affections away from her beloved to any one else, since they were unalterably fixed. The Septuagint, which is followed by Good, &c., supplies here [HE: b.ix^ebo'vOt 'vO b.^e'ay^elvOt haS\.odeh], from ii. 7, and v. 3. It is obvious, from the change of [HE: 'im/] into the more urgent negative particle [HE: mah], (comp. Job xxxi.; Ewald, § 325 b), that the variation is designedly made; and indeed the haste in which the Shulamite is to depart with her beloved does not permit her to use the lengthy adjuration.
