1. Return, return, &c. Here we see how little all the persuasions, promises, and eulogies of the king and courtiers affected the sincere and deeply rooted affections of the Shulamite for her beloved shepherd. No sooner had she explained (as she incidentally informs us) how she came to be noticed and taken up by the king, than she actually started off. But the king entreated her to return, that he might look at her once more. The Shulamite, pausing a little, turns round and modestly asks: What will you behold in the Shulamite? That is, what can ye see in a humble rustic girl? ‏הַשּׁוּלַמּית‎, as is evident from the article, is a gentile noun, according to the analogy of ‏הַשּׁוּנַמִּית‎, (1 Kings i. 3; 2 Kings iv. 12, 25.) Ewald, § 156 c: and a female inhabitant of Shulem, i.q. Shunem. Shulem still exists as a village, now called Sôlam, about three miles and a half north of Zerîn, (Jezreel), and lies on the declivity, at the western end of the mountain of Duhy, the so-called Little Hermon. “There is little room for doubt that it is the ancient Shunem of the tribe of Issachar, where the Philistines encamped before Saul’s last battle, (Josh. xix. 18; 1 Sam. xxviii. 4.) From the same place, apparently, Abishag the Shunammite was brought to the aged David; and here it was probably that Elisha often lodged in the house of the Shunammite woman, and afterwards raised her son from the dead (1 Kings i. 3; 2 Kings iv. 8–37; viii. 1–6). Eusebius and Jerome describe it in their day as a village lying five Roman miles from Mount Tabor, towards the southern quarter, and they write the name already Sulem.” Robinson, Palestine, iii. 169, &c. The transition of ‏ל‎ into ‏נ‎ is of frequent occurrence; comp. ‏לָחַץ‎ and ‏נָחַץ‎, to burn. (Gesen. Lexicon, ‏ל‎ a; Ewald, § 156, c.) ‏שׁוּלַמִּית‎ is not the feminine of the name ‏שְׁלֹמֹה‎, which would be ‏שְׁלֹמִית‎; comp. Lev. xxiv. 11; 1 Chron. iii. 19; Ewald, § 274, f. Like a dance to double choirs, replies the king, i.e. “to see thee is like gazing at the charming view of a festive choir expressing their merriment in a sacred dance. The Hebrews, in common with other nations (Strabo, 10), used sacred dancing, accompanied by vocal and instrumental music, as expressive of joy and rejoicing (Exod. xv. 20; 2 Sam. vi. 15; Ps. cxlix. 3). A sight of such an assemblage of various beauties, all swelling their voices into one song of joy, and blending their several forms in one choral dance of joy, must have afforded a delightful picture. No wonder that such a scene is described by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 590,) as portrayed on the famous shield of Achilles, and that “On either side spectators numerous stood, Delighted.”