1. I am a mere flower of the plain. “As for me,” the Shulamite modestly insinuates, “my beauty is not peculiar, but is of an ordinary character, like these flowers which are found in great profusion in the plain and in the valley. The word ‏חֲבַצֶלֶת‎, which occurs only once more (Isa. xxxv. 1), is variously explained. The ancient versions vary in their rendering of it. Thus the Sept. and Vulg. have here ἄνθος, flos, flower; the Chald., ‏נַרְקוֹם‎, narcissus; so Saadias: whereas in Isa. the Sept., Vulg., Chald., render it lily. Modern critics are no less divided. Kimchi, Ibn Ezra, &c., explain it rose; Michaelis, Ewald, Gesenius, Döpke, Henderson, Meier, &c., take it to be autumn crocus, colchicum autumnale; De Wette, Rosenmüller, Royle, Winer, &c., narcissus; Professor Lee, lily. The etymology of the word is likewise disputed. Some derive it from ‏בָּצַל‎, a bulb, with ‏ח‎ prefixed, as ‏ח‎ like ‏א‎ is sometimes put before triliterals, in order to form a quadriliteral, (Gesenius, Lehrg. p. 863, Rosenmüller, Henderson, Hengstenberg, &c.,) and others take it as a compound of ‏חָבַץ‎ and ‏בָּצַל‎, acrid bulb. (Ewald, Heiligstedt, &c.) The most probable derivation, however, seems to be ‏חָבַץ‎ = ‏חָמַץ‎, to be bright, to shine; hence ‏חֲבַצֶל‎ (with the termination ‏–ֶל‎ like ‏כַּרְמֶל‎, ‏עֲרָפֶל‎), a flower; as most verbs which signify shining are used also to denote verdure and bloom. Compare ‏נִצָן‎, a flower, from ‏נָצַץ‎, to shine; and Simonis Arcanum Formarum, p. 352. The word ‏שָׁרוֹן‎ (for ‏יְשָרֹוֹן‎, like ‏סוֹר‎ for ‏יְסוֹר‎, from ‏יָשַׁר‎, to be straight, plain, with the termination ‏–וֹן‎, comp. Gesen. § 84, 15), is here best translated a plain, or field; so the Sept., Vulg., Percy, &c. render ‏חֲבַצֶלֶת הַשָּׁרוֹן‎, a flower of the field; and this admirably suits the ‏שׁוֹשַׁנַּת הָעֲמָקִים‎, lily of the valley—a flower common in the valley. 2. As a lily among the thorns. Beautifully and ingeniously does the shepherd take up this humble figure of the Shulamite, and, by a happy turn, make it symbolical of her surpassing beauty. “It is true, that thou art a lily, but as a lily surrounded by a multitude of brambles; so thou appearest among all the damsels.” The expressions ‏בֵּן‎ and ‏בַּת‎ are not merely used for son and daughter, but also, idiomatically, denote lad and lass, youth and damsel. Gen. xxx. 13; Judg. xii. 9; Prov. vii. 7.