4. Thy neck is like, &c. That is, “The erect and bold carriage of thy neck, decked with ornaments, resembles that high, commanding tower, adorned with trophies.” Though the text supplies us with no clue for finding out what tower this was, yet the comparison implies that it must have been one well known and celebrated for its imposing aspect and symmetrical proportions. Sandys (iii. 137), who is followed by others, identifies this tower with some ruins still found in the uttermost angle of Mount Zion, which bears that name. ‏ תַּלְפִּיּוֹת‎ is rendered by the Sept. Θαλφιώθ, as a proper name; but there is no place known by such a name. Aquila has εἰς ἐπάλξεις: so Vulg. cum propugnaculis, battlements, Sym. ὕψη, heights; but it is difficult to divine how these renderings are to be made out from the form and meaning of the word. The Talmud Jerushalmi, Berachoth, section 4, and Saadias explain it ‏תל שהכול פונים לו‎, an elevation towards which all look, i.e. by which they are guided. Ibn Ezra seems to favour the view that ‏לְתַלְפִּיּוֹת‎ is a compound of ‏לְתַלוֹת פִּיוֹת‎, for the suspension of arms. But the Talmudic explanation rests upon the favourite whim of making a word of every letter. Ibn Ezra’s explanation incurs the objection that ‏פִּיוֹת‎, by itself, never means swords or arms. Besides, it is evident that this interpretation owes its origin to the immediately following clause, ‏אֶלֶף הַמָּגֵן תָּלוּי עָלָיו‎. Gesenius derives it from the Arabic ‏תָּלַף‎, to destroy; hence ‏תַּלְפִּי‎, destructive, deadly; poetically, for arms. But, apart from the difficulty of making ‏תַּלְפִּיּוֹת‎, even according to this derivation, to mean weapons, according to this rendering there is no connexion between this clause and the figure. It is therefore better, with Rashi and Rashbam, to take ‏תַּלְפִּיּוֹת‎ as a contraction for ‏תְּאַלְפִּיּוֹת‎ from the root ‏אָלַף‎, to teach. The radical ‏א‎ in the feeble verbs ‏פ״א‎, does not unfrequently fall away: thus ‏וַתַּזְרֵנִי‎, 2 Sam. xxii. 40, for ‏וַתְּאַזְּרֵנִי‎, and in the same verb, ‏מַלְּפֵנוּ‎ for ‏מְאַלְּפֵנוּ‎, Job xxxv. 11; Gesen. § 68, 2; Ewald, § 54. ‏תַּלְפִּיּוֹת‎ (plur. of ‏תלפית‎, according to the analogy of ‏תַּבְנִיוֹת‎, from ‏תַּבְנִית‎, ‏תַּרְמִיוֹת‎, from ‏תַּרְמִית‎), would therefore signify instruction; the plural being here used for the abstract, see supra, i. 2. This derivation is confirmed by the Chald., which periphrases ‏תַּלְפִּיּוֹת‎ by ‏אוּלְפַן דְּאֹורַיְתָא‎, instruction of the law, and bears out the figure, and yields a beautiful sense. The Shulamite’s neck is not compared to some common turret, but to that splendid tower which was built for a model, that, as Rashbam rightly remarks, ‏כל אומנין בנאים מתלמדים ממנו‎, all architects might learn their designs from it.