11, 12. I went down into the nut-garden, &c. As Solomon had referred, in uttering his encomium, to her first coming within sight of the court ladies, the Shulamite here instantly interrupts the king, in order to explain how that came to pass. “I did not go to meet the king, to exhibit myself and be admired by him or his royal retinue; I merely went into the garden with the intention of seeing whether there were any herbs to take home for use, and whether the fruit promised well; and this (‏נַפְשִׁי‎) intention of mine brought me unawares near the monarch and his cortége.” Though ‏אֱגוֹז‎, nut-tree, (so Sept., Vulg., Chald.,) nut occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, yet its meaning is established from the cognate languages, and its frequent usage in the Talmud and latter Hebrew writers, ‏רָאָה ב‎, to look among (Gen. xxxiv.), with the intention of choosing that which pleases, Gen. vi. 2. ‏אִבֵּי הַנָּחַל‎, the green or vegetables growing by the river side; so the Sept. γενήματι τοῦ χειμάῤῥου, and Rashbam, ‏על שפת הנחל‎. The Sept. has here ‏שָׁם אֶתֵּן אֶת דּוֹדַי לָךְ‎, from chap. vii. 14, which the Arabic, Æthiopic, and several modern commentators wrongly follow, as it has no MS. authority, and has evidently arisen from a misunderstanding of this passage. 12. Unwittingly, &c. This verse has caused much perplexity to interpreters. The ancient versions, finding the sense obscure, have altered almost every word, and hence increased the difficulty. Thus the Sept. has οὐκ ἔγνω ἡ ψυχή μου· ἔθετό με ἅρματα Ἀμιναδάβ, which Luther follows: “Meine Seele wusste es nicht, dass er mich zum Wagen Aminadib gezetzt hatte:” They take ‏נֶפֶשׁ‎ as the subject, alter ‏לֹא יָדַעְתִּי‎, the first person com., into ‏לֹא יָדְעָה‎, the third fem., to agree with ‏נֶפֶשׁ‎, a fem. noun, ‏שָׂמַתְנִי‎, the third fem., into ‏שַׂמְנִי‎, the third masc. referring it to Solomon, and regard ‏עַמִּי נָדִיב‎ as a proper name. The Vulg. has Nescivi, anima mea conturbavit me propter quadrigas Aminadab; altering ‏שָׂמַתְנִי‎, the Kal of ‏שׂוּם‎, to put, to place, into the Hiphil of ‏שָׂמֵם‎, to be astonished, ‏מַרְכְּבוֹת‎ into ‏מֵרִכְבוֹת‎, the plural of ‏רֶכֶב‎, with the preposition ‏מ‎, and taking ‏עַמִּי נָדִיב‎ as a proper name. Passing over these textual alterations, and the emendations proposed by modern commentators, as unauthorized, we shall first examine the words as they are in the text, and then the most plausible interpretations deducible therefrom. ‏לֹא יָדַעְתִּי‎ are rightly taken by most, though differing in their opinion as to the rendering of the remainder of the verse, as adverbial, in the sense of suddenly, unwittingly, and as subordinate to ‏נַפְשִׁי שָׂמַתְנִי‎, my soul has unwittingly put me, or placed me; comp. Job v. 9; Isa. xlvii. 11; Jer. l. 24. The verb ‏שׂוּם‎, to put, to place, may be construed with two accusatives, one of the person, and the other of the thing; and ‏מַרְכְּבוֹת‎ may be taken as the second accusative (comp. Ps. xxxix. 9; 1 Sam.