8, 9. I have threescore queens, &c. The flattery and praise here exceed all that have been previously offered. Solomon protests that, though he is surrounded by a numerous retinue of women of all ranks, the Shulamite is the sole possessor of his heart: she who is the best beloved of her mother, and whose consummate beauty has elicited the highest praises from the queens, concubines and maidens. The discrepancy between the number of Solomon’s wives and concubines here stated, and that described in 1 Kings xi. 3, maybe reconciled by taking ‏שִׁשִׁים‎, ‏שְׁמֹנִים‎ and ‏אֵין מִסְפָּר‎ for indefinite and large numbers: many, very many, without number: so Kleuker, Rosenmüller, Magnus, &c. “We must supply ‏לִי‎, to me, after ‏הֵמָּה‎, there. For ‏הֵמָּה‎, mas, instead of ‏הֵנָּה‎, fem., see ii. 7. The pronoun ‏הִיא‎, she, is the subject in all the three clauses, and ‏אַחַת‎ in the first and second clause, and ‏בַּרָה‎ in the third are predicates. We must supply ‏לִי‎ after ‏אַחַת הִיא‎, she is my only one; just as ‏אַחַת הִיא לְאִמָּה‎. The word ‏אֶחָד‎ is used for the only one of its kind (Job xxiii. 13; Ezek. ii. 64; vii. 5), favourite; comp. ‏גּוֹי אֶחָד בָּאָרֶץ‎, 2 Sam. vii. 23. 10. Who is she that looks forth, &c. That Solomon quotes here the eulogy mentioned in the preceding verse, which the court ladies pronounced upon the superlative beauty of the Shulamite when they first beheld her, has long been recognised by the Rabbins, and is now admitted by most interpreters. This is, moreover, confirmed by Prov. xxxi. 28, where the same words, ‏אִשֵּׁר‎ and ‏הַלֵּל‎, are used, and the following verse contains the eulogy which the husband utters. The rising morning, with its red light looking down from heaven over the mountains (Joel ii. 2); the beautiful and placid complexion of the moon, and the refulgent and resplendent appearance of the sun, have often afforded, both to the Oriental and to the Greek and Latin writers, exquisite similes for beauty and grandeur. Thus Sirach (l. 5, 6), describing the High Priest, says:— “How splendid he was in his interview with the people. In his coming out from the house of the veil! As the morning star amid the clouds, As the moon when full in her days, As the sun when beaming upon the temple of the Most High.” Comp. also Rev. i. 16; Theocritus’ description of Helen, xviii. 26–28; Lane’s Arabian Nights, i. 29. ‏חַמָּה‎ and ‏לְבָנָח‎ are poetical epithets for the sun and moon, Isa. xxiv. 23.