3. Sweet is the odour, &c. Ointments, like wines, were used by the ancients as cordials (Prov. xxvii. 9), and as restoratives in consequence of their supposed sanative properties. Hence the anointing of the sick. (Isa. i. 6, &c.; Jer. viii. 22.) The fainting Shulamite, therefore, mentions this second cordial. The ‏ל‎ in ‏לְרֵיחַ‎ signifies in, as regards, quoad, and is frequently used for the sake of giving prominence to an idea. Thus “Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth ‏לְעֹשֵׁר וּלְחָכְמָה‎, in or as regards riches and wisdom.” (1 Kings x. 23.) Compare also Exod. xx. 5, 6; Ewald, § 217 a. Fürst, Lexicon, ‏ל‎ 5, f. The Sept. has ‏ו‎ instead of ‏ל‎; or it may be, favours the view of Döpke, Heiligstedt, Meier, &c., that the ‏ל‎ introduces the nominative; but this requires another anomaly, viz., to refer ‏טוֹבִים‎, to the nomen rectum, instead of regens, and does not at all improve the sense. The Syriac, Ibn Ezra, Authorized Version, Percy, Williams, Noyes, &c., take the ‏ל‎ in the sense of ‏לְמַעַן‎, because, and connect it with ‏עַל כֵּן‎, therefore, of the last clause; but these words are never used together for cause and effect. Besides, this explanation, like the former, interrupts the sense; for the fainting damsel evidently refers here to the second restorative. Luther strangely renders this clause, dass man deine gute Salbe rieche. Kleuker, Rosenmüller, Ewald, Delitzsch, Philippson, &c., translate ‏לְרֵיחַ‎ to the smell; but this is contrary to the usus loquendi, as ‏רֵיחַ‎ is never used for the organ which inhales, but invariably means something exhaled or emitted. Hodgson renders ‏לְרֵיחַ‎, like the scent; but ‏ל‎ never signifies like. The instance in Deut. xi. 18, adduced in support of his assertion, is gratuitous, for the ‏ל‎ in ‏לְטוֹטָפֹת‎ has not that meaning.