See also Virg. Æn. v. 213. ‏חֲגְוֵי‎ is the plural construct. of ‏חֲגָוְ‎ (from the root ‏חָגָה‎, to make incisions in, to split or perforate rocks); according to the analogy of ‏קַצְוֵי‎, plural const. of ‏קְצָו‎ and ‏מַדְוֵי‎ from ‏מְדָו‎, vide sup. ii. 11. ‏מַדְרֵגָה‎, (from ‏דָּרָג‎, cognate with ‏דָּרַךְ‎, to ascend,) a place reached by climbing or ascending, a steep, a precipice. The Mazora marks the ‏י‎ in ‏מַרְאֵיךְ‎ as superfluous, evidently to avoid the apparent incongruity between the adjective ‏נָאֲוָה‎, which is in the singular, and the noun ‏מַרְאֵיךְ‎, apparently plural. But the ‏י‎ here may be retained, and the word may still be singular. For many nouns from roots ‏ל״ה‎ preserve in the singular before a suffix the original ‏י‎ of the root, and thus have the appearance of the plural: e.g. ‏מִקְנֶיךָ‎, thy castle (Isa. xxx. 23), from ‏מִקְנֶה‎, ‏מַרְאָיו‎, the same expression, Job xli. 1; Gesen. § 93, 9; Ewald, § 256 b. 15. Catch us the foxes, &c. The Shulamite here quotes the words of her brothers, who had overheard the invitation. To prevent the meeting of the lovers, the brothers gave the damsel employment in the vineyard, to catch and keep out the foxes. To this she refers in i. 6, when, repelling the disdainful looks of the court ladies, and accounting for her brown complexion, she mentions the severe treatment of her brothers. ‏שׁוּעָלִים‎, foxes, as well as jackals, were very numerous in Palestine (Judg. xv. 4; Lam. v. 18; Ps. lxiii. 11; Neh. iv. 3). There was a district actually called ‏אֶרֶץ שׁוּעָל‎, from the abundance of these creatures, 1 Sam. xiii. 17. These animals are gregarious, found in packs of two or three hundred (Boch. Hieroz. lib. iii. 12), and are described, both by sacred and profane writers, as destructive to vineyards, Sam. i. 17, 18; and Theocritus, Idyl. v. 112: Μισέω τὰς δασυκέρκος ἀλώπεκας, αἳ τὰ Μίκωνος Αἰεὶ φοιτῶσαι τὰ ποθέσπερα ῥαγίζοντι. “I hate those brush-tail’d foxes, that each night Spoil Micon’s vineyards with their deadly bite:” also Idyl. i. 47–50. The young foxes are especially injurious to the vineyards, because they burrow in holes in the ground, Neh. iv. 3. The brothers, in the last clause, assign a reason for their proposal; the ‏ו‎ in ‏וּכְרָמֵינוּ‎ is therefore to be rendered for, Gesen. § 155, 1 c. The Sept. inadvertently omits the word ‏שׁוּעָלִים‎.