10. Its pillars he hath made, &c. The description here given of the costly construction of this magnificent palanquin is by no means a mere poetic embellishment. A similar litter was presented by the British government in 1766 to the Nabob of the Carnatic, of which the following account is given by Williams in loco, from the public prints of the time: “The beams are solid gold, the inside beautifully decorated with silver lining and fringe throughout; the panels are painted in the highest style of finishing, and represent various groups and heads of animals, after the manner of Asia, beaded with gold richly raised above the surface, and engraved. The stays and different other ornaments are of embossed silver.” Curtius (viii. 9, 23) gives us a description of the procession of an Indian potentate, which strikingly resembles the one here depicted. “When the king shows himself in public, his servants go before him with silver censers, which fill the air, throughout the way along which he is borne in the palanquin, with delicious odour. He himself is reclining upon a golden couch, covered with pearls and veiled with purple curtains, embroidered with gold; the life-guard bring up the rear.” ‏רְפִידָה‎ (from ‏רָפַד‎, to support, ii. 5), that which supports the back when sitting; so the Sept. ἀνάκλινον; Vulg. reclinatorium; Döpke, Rosenmüller, Hitzig, &c. ‏מֶרְכָּב‎, a seat, comp. Lev. xv. 9. The words ‏תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָּׁלַיִם‎, are either to be translated: its centre is tesselated most lovely, by the daughters of Jerusalem;—the noun ‏אַהֲבָה‎ may be used adverbially for lovely, charmingly, comp. ‏אֹהֲבֵם נְדָבָה‎, “I will love them freely,” Hos. xiv. 4; Ewald, § 279 c, § 204; so Luther, Kleuker, Herder, De Wette, Rosenmüller, Philippson, &c.; and the ‏מִּן‎ in ‏מִבְּנוֹת‎ may denote the author or instrument, see Isa. xxii. 3; xxviii. 7; Eccl. xii. 11; Gesen. Gram. § 143, 2;—or they may be rendered, the middle thereof is wrought, as expressive of their love, by the daughters of Jerusalem; taking ‏אַהֲבָה‎, love, for the effect, or proof of it; comp. ‏דוֹדִים‎, i. 2, and ἀγάπη in Greek; so Le Clerc, Bp. Percy, Drs. Good and Clark. The interior of these couches is generally painted with baskets of flowers and nosegays, intermixed with short sentences or mottoes, expressing the power of love.