It is represented as a shrub, growing on mountains, and thorny, both in Arabia (Isa. lx. 6; Jer. vi. 20) and in Palestine, according to the passage here; reaches a height of about five feet, and resembles in its leaves and fruit the myrtle. The frankincense is obtained by incisions which are made twice a year; the first in the beginning of autumn, which is white and pure (‏לְבֹנָה זָכָּה‎, Exod. xxx. 34), and is regarded as superior; and the second incision is made in the winter, when the resin thus obtained is reddish, and considered much inferior. Comp. Winer, Bibl. Dict. p. 681, et seq.; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxii. 14. 7, 8. Lo! it is the palanquin, &c. Another bystander, recognizing it at a distance, exclaims that it is the cortége of Solomon, consisting of his palanquin and guard. ‏מִטָּתוֹ שֶׁלִשְׁלמֹהֹ‎, i.q. ‏מִטַּת שְׁלֹמֹה‎; comp. Gesen. § 121, 5, note; Ewald, § 309 c. This construction, however, has no real analogy in the Scriptures; it frequently occurs in latter Hebrew writings. Comp. ‏תהתיתו של ההר‎, the bottom of the mountain, in Rashbam on the Song of Songs, iv. 1. The ‏גִבּרִֹים‎ here mentioned, were a separate class of the body-guard formed by David; and, as co-religionists (‏גִבֹּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל‎), seem to have been chosen to protect the monarch on his excursion against any attack of nocturnal marauders, so frequent and so much dreaded in the East. Comp. Job i. 15, with Gen. xvi. 12. The ‏מ‎ in ‏מִגִּבֹּרֵי‎ is used partitively, vide supra, i. 2. ‏אֲחוּזֵי חֶרֶב‎, skilled in the sword. ‏אָחַז‎, to take hold, also to handle artfully, like ‏תָּפַשׂ‎, to take hold, to handle skilfully. The participle ‏אָחוּז‎, though of a passive form, has an active signification; this is not unfrequently the case, especially when it belongs to an intransitive verb. Comp. ‏בּטוּחַ בַּיהוָֹה‎, he trusted in Jehovah, Ps. cxii. 7; Gesen. § 50, 3, Rem. 2; Ewald, § 149 d. This removes the apparent contradiction caused by the Authorized Version, “They all hold swords;” when in the next clause, as Hodgson and Good remarked, we are told that each had his sword on his thigh. ‏אִישׁ‎, a man is used as a distributive for each, every. Comp. Gen. xv. 18; xlii. 25; Gesen. § 124, 2, Rem. 1; Ewald, § 278, b. We must supply ‏חָגוּר‎ after ‏אִישׁ‎. Comp. Exod. xxii. 27; Ps. xlv. 4. ‏פָּחַד‎, fear, metonymically for the object of fear (Gen. xxxi. 42, 53), here marauders. This is evident from Ps. xci. 5; Prov. iii. 24. ‏בַּלֵילוֹת‎, in or during the nights, i.e. nocturnal marauders. Vide supra, iii. 1.