The flames of the Eternal. These words are exegetical of “flames of fire;” i.e. the flames of love, though having the same energy as those of fire, are not of the same origin; they emanate from the Eternal, the source of all love. Whether, with Ben Asher, we read ‏שַׁלְהָבָתְיָהּ‎, conjointly, like ‏מַאֲפָלְיָהּ‎, Jer. ii. 31; or with Ben Naphtali, ‏שַׁלְהֶבָת יָהּ‎, separately, which is followed by most editions, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and the majority of modern critics, and which is required by the parallelism; this predicate does not state that the flames of love are “most vehement,” but affirms that they emanate from the Eternal. ‏יָה‎, an abbreviation of ‏יַהֲוֶה‎ (see Kalisch on Exod. iii. 14; xi. 2; Fürst, Lexicon, s.v.), like ‏אֵל‎, Isa. xiv. 13, is the genitive of cause or origin. Comp. ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἔστι, 1 John iv. 7. ‏שַׁלְהֵב‎, flame, may either be a quadriliteral, formed from ‏שַׁהֵב‎, Arabic, to burn, with the insertion of the ‏ל‎ after the first radical, according to the analogy of ‏זַלְעַף‎, violent heat, (Ps. ii. 6), from the root ‏זָעַף‎, to be hot; or, which is more probable, is the Shaphel conjugation of ‏לָהַב‎, to burn. Fürst, Lexicon, s.v.; Gesen. § 55, 6; Ewald, § 122 a. The Sept. has φλόγες αὐτῆς, ‏שִׁלְהָבֹתֶיהָ‎. That the original reading of the text was ‏שַׁלְהֲבֹתֶיהָ שַׁלְהֲבֹת יָהּ‎ (Ewald, Döpke, Hitzig, &c.) is purely conjectural. 7. Floods cannot quench love. Being a flame of celestial origin no terrestrial influence, however great, can destroy or wash it away; it is not subjected to means resorted to for the extinction of ordinary fires. ‏מַיִם רַבִּים‎, prop. much water, i.e. a great quantity of it (Numb. xx. 11), floods. ‏שָׁטַף‎, to wash, or sweep away, Job xiv. 19; Isa. xxviii. 17. If one should offer all, &c. Such divine love spontaneously flows from the heart, and cannot be purchased with money; though one offered all his riches for it, they would be utterly despised. This affirmation, whilst true in itself, is levelled against the king, who attempted to gain love by flatteries and praises (vide supra, i. 11; vi. 8), but was utterly rejected (vii. 11). ‏אִישׁ‎ any one, one, Gen. xiii. 16; Exod. xvi. 29; Gesen. § 122, Rem. 2. ‏בּוֹז‎, the infinitive absolute, is employed before the finite verb ‏יָבוּזוּ‎, to express intensity, Gen. xliii. 3; 1 Sam. xx. 6; Gesen. § 131, 3 a; Ewald, § 280 b. ‏יָבוּזוּ‎, the third person plural, is used for the passive, see supra, chap. viii. 1.