7. Tell me, O thou, &c. Having repelled the disdainful looks of the court ladies, the Shulamite now resumes her address to her beloved; so that this verse is intimately connected with the fourth; and verses five and six are, as it were, parenthetical. Is it not surprising that some can read this verse, and yet believe that the king was the object of the damsel’s attachment, when this shows so clearly that it was a shepherd? The violent heat of noonday compels people in the East to desist from labour, and recline in some cool part of the house (2 Sam. iv. 5). Shepherds especially, being more exposed to the burning rays of the sun, lead their flocks under some shady tree near wells and streams. (Gen. xxix. 7; Ps. xxiii.; Isa. xix. 10.) We have beautiful descriptions of the same custom by Greeks and Romans. Thus Virgil, Georg. iii. 331— Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem, Sicubi magna Jovis antiquo robore quercus Ingentis tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum Ilicibus crebris sacra nemus adcubet umbra. “When noon-tide flames, down cool sequester’d glades, Lead where some giant oak the dell o’ershades, Or where the gloom of many an ilex throws The sacred darkness that invites repose.” Compare also Theocritus, i. 14, 15: vi. 1, 16, 38, 39. ‏אֵיכָה‎ prop. how, but also of place, where, 2 Kings xvi. 13. Twenty-eight MSS. of Kenn. and De Rossi, read ‏וְאֵיכָה‎, but this weakens the sentence. We must supply ‏צֹאנְךָ‎ after ‏תִּרְעֶה‎, and ‏–ם‎ after ‏תַּרְבִּיץ‎, see Ezek. xxxiv. 15. Immanuel accounts for the dual, ‏צָהֳרַיִם‎, because ‏שזה השם נופל לא על חצות היום בלבד אלא גם על חלק מהיום קרוב לחצות וחלק מהיום מעט אחר חצות‎, it speaks of that part of the day immediately preceding noon as well as of that part which immediately follows noon. ‏שֶׁלָמָה‎, i.q. ‏אֲשֶׁר לָמָה‎, Dan. i. 10, ut ne, well rendered by the Sept. μήποτε, Vulg. ne. ‏אֲשֶׁר‎ is used as a conjunction, the ‏ל‎ to express design, or purpose, and ‏מָה‎ for negation, Ewald, § 337, 6. ‏כְּעֹטְיָה‎ has caused much perplexity to interpreters. It is explained to mean like one veiled (ὡς περιβαλλομένη, Sept.), as a sign of mourning (Rashi, compare 2 Sam. xv. 30; xix. 5); of harlotry (Rosenmüller, comp. xxviii. 5); of shame (Umbreit, Hengstenberg, comp. Jer. xiv. 3; Mal. iii. 7); and of wandering or roaming (Philippson, comp. Jer. xliii. 12). But wherever covering is used to signify mourning or shame, the part of the body usually covered, in order to indicate the existence of the emotion, is invariably stated. Equally untenable is the rendering of harlot; for Tamar covered her face, not as a sign that she was a prostitute, but to disguise herself, so that she might not be recognised, and Judah took her to be a harlot because she sat by the way side, Comp. Jer. iii. 2. Ewald renders it like one unknown; but this, to say the least, is remote from the context; Gesenius, like one fainting; but this incurs the same objection.