The Song of Songs: Translated from the Original Hebrew, with a Commentary, Historical and Critical
Religion
The Song of Songs: Translated from the Original Hebrew, with a Commentary, Historical and Critical
Bible. Song of Solomon -- Commentaries
Compare also Virgil, Eclog. x. 38. The comparison between the dark
complexion and the tents of the Kedareens, and between the comeliness
and the pavilions of Solomon, arose from the custom of nomades and
travellers in the East of carrying with them moveable tents, which were
temporarily pitched for the purpose of the pernoctation or protection
against meridian sun. The tents of the Kedareens, a nomadic tribe of
North Arabia (Gen. xxv. 13; Isa. xxi. 17), were and still are to this
day made of coarse cloth, obtained from the shaggy hair of their black
goats (Rosenmüller, Orient. iv. 939; Saalschütz, Archäologie der
Hebräer, Erster Theil, p. 63). Whereas, the curtains of which Solomon’s
pavilion was constructed were, most probably, very fine and beautiful.
From this passage, confirmed by chap. iii. 6, and vi. 12, we see that
this scene took place in the royal tent of Solomon, pitched in the open
air of some favourite spot to which the king resorted in the summer. It
is still the custom of Oriental potentates to go once a-year to some
attractive neighbourhood, where they erect their magnificent tents,
which serve as their temporary abodes. (Morier, Zweite Reise in
Persien, p. 223; Jaubert, Voyage, p. 334). שְׁחוֹרָה, swarthy, refers to
ﬡָהֳלֵי קֵדָר, the tents of Kedar, and נָאוָה, comely, to יְרִעוֹת שְׁלֹמֹה the
pavilion of Solomon. נָﬡוָה, a contraction of נָﬡֲוָה, from the root
נָﬡָה, is formed from the Pilel. The third radical, which this
conjugation requires to be doubled, appears in this and in two other
words, under the form וה. Compare שָׁחַה, to bow, Pilel, שָׁחֲוָה, hence
the reflexive הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה, to bow, or prostrate oneself; מְטַחֲוִים,
archers, Gen. xxi. 16; Gesen. § 75, Rem. 18; Ewald, § 121 c. יְרִעָה,
prop. a vail, a curtain of a tent, Exod. xxvi. 12, and metonomically
for the tent itself, 2 Sam. vii. 2; 1 Chron. xvii. 1, and like here, in
parallelism with אֹהֶל, Jer. iv. 20; x. 20; xi. 29. The Septuagint,
followed by the Vulgate, erroneously renders כִּירִיעוֹת שְׁלֹמֹה, ὥς δέῤῥεις
Σολομὼν, as the skins of Solomon, and Bishop Foliot refers it to the
beautiful skin of Solomon’s body, with which the Church compares
herself to set forth her comeliness. Hodgson, misunderstanding the
figure, absurdly renders כְּאָהֳלֵי קֵדָר, like the spices of Kedar, and
makes the Shulamite compare herself to the odoriferous trees and
beautiful figures in the (יְרִיעוֹת), fine tapestry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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