same formula re-occurs iii. 5, and viii. 4, to mark, at the end of the trials, her successful resistance. 8. Hark! my beloved! Having alluded in the preceding Section (i. 6) to the ill-treatment which she had received from her brothers, the Shulamite now relates the cause of that treatment. Thus whilst this narrative forms the connecting link between this and the preceding Section, it also gradually acquaints us with her history. The description given of the arrival and conduct of her beloved is very graphic and beautiful. She first sees him at a distance, bounding over the hills with the speed of the swift-footed gazelle, and presently he is found behind the wall, peeping through the window, and imploring her in the sweetest language imaginable to go with him into the fields and enjoy the beauties and charms of nature. ‏קוֹל‎ is not ‏קוֹל רַגְלָיו‎, the sound of his feet (Ibn Ezra, Hitzig), which could not be heard at such a distance from the mountains; nor the voice of his song (Döpke, Philippson), for he could not very well sing when running at such a speed as here described; but simply means hark! (Ewald, Magnus, Meier), and is used in animated descriptions to arrest attention, Ewald, § 286 f. 9 My beloved is like, &c. To describe the speed of his approach the Shulamite compares him to the swift-footed gazelle, and nimble fawn. This comparison is also used in other parts of Scripture. Thus Asahel is called light-footed as a gazelle. 2 Sam. ii. 18; Prov. vi. 5; Hab. iii. 19. “The Eastern buildings generally surround a square inner court; the beloved is described as gradually making his approach, first to the wall, then looking through the window.” Here is another incontestable proof that the object of the damsel’s affection, whom she describes as coming to her, is not the king, but a shepherd, for the king could not consistently be represented as bounding over the hills. Though ‏אַיָּל‎ has a feminine, ‏אַיָּלָה‎, which is used in ver. 7, yet instead of its being here ‏לְעֹפֶר אֲיָלוֹת‎, we have ‏הָאַיָּלִים‎: see also Ps. xlii. 2. This is owing to the neglect on the part of the writer to avail himself of the forms established by usage, Gesen. § 107, 1. Or it may be that such names were still of a common gender, and the feminines were only in the process of formation, but not as yet fixedly established, Ewald, § 175 b. ‏כֹּתֶל‎ occurs only here, but it is evident from Dan. v. 5, and the Targum, Josh. ii. 15, where it stands for the Hebrew ‏קִיר‎, that it means a wall forming a part of the house. The Sept. has here ‏עַל הָרֵי בָתָר‎, from ii. 17.