I would cause thee to drink, &c. On the aromatic wine, see supra, chap. vii. 3. The pomegranate-juice was and still is a favourite beverage in the East. “The Orientals,” says Dr. Kitto, “indulge largely in beverages made with fresh juice of various kinds of fruits. Among these, sherbet made with pomegranate-juice is particularly esteemed, and, from its agreeable and cooling acidity, the present writer was himself accustomed to prefer it to any other drink of this description.” ‏יַיִן‎, is either an anomalous construct (Gesenius; Fürst, Lex. s.v.), or the absolute, and ‏הַרֶקַח‎, apposition in the accusative. Compare ‏מַיִם לַחַץ‎, 1 Kings xx. 27; Gesen. § 116, 6, Rem. b; Ewald, § 287 h. ‏אֶשָׁקְךָ‎ and ‏אֲשְׁקְךָ‎ are a paranomasia, vide supra, chap. i. 3. ‏עַסִיס רִמֹּנִי‎, my pomegranate-juice, i.e. which I myself have prepared. The noun in the genitive, expressing the quality of the nominative, has the suffix; compare ‏הַר קָדְשִׁי‎, my holy mountain, Ps. ii. 6; Gesen. § 121 b; Ewald, § 291 b. From an oversight of this most probably arose the readings of ‏רמנים‎ or ‏רמונים‎ (several MSS.), ‏רִמֹּנַי‎ (Vulgate, Syriac), the supposition that ‏רִמֹּנִי‎ is an adjective (Schultens), and the opinion that it is an abbreviated plural from ‏רִמֹנִים‎, like ‏מִּנִּי‎ for ‏מִנִּים‎, (Ps. xlv. 9, Meier, Fürst, Lexicon, ‏מ‎, 3 b.) 3. Let his left hand, &c. Exhausted with the attempt to describe her unfailing attachment for her beloved shepherd, an attachment far deeper than external circumstances permit her to manifest, the Shulamite desires that no other hand should raise her drooping head, no other arm support her enfeebled frame, than those of her beloved; compare chap. ii. 6. 4. I adjure you, &c. This last affecting scene, having brought the Shulamite’s struggle to a successful termination, is closed by her adjuring the court ladies as before (ii. 7, and v. 3), to make no more attempt to draw her affections away from her beloved to any one else, since they were unalterably fixed. The Septuagint, which is followed by Good, &c., supplies here ‏בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה‎, from ii. 7, and v. 3. It is obvious, from the change of ‏אִם‎ into the more urgent negative particle ‏מַה‎, (comp. Job xxxi.; Ewald, § 325 b), that the variation is designedly made; and indeed the haste in which the Shulamite is to depart with her beloved does not permit her to use the lengthy adjuration.