The precedent of the Talmud in taking the beloved as the Lord, and the loved one as the Congregation of Israel, and in explaining the text in such a manner as to make it square with her doings, has quite prepared us for the Chaldee exposition, the author of which most probably was himself one of the later Talmudists. How could the paraphrast do otherwise? “Are not the words of the sages more excellent than even the wine of the Law?” [37] “Is not he who transgresses the words of the scribes more guilty than he who transgresses the words of the Law?” [38] Having, therefore, been once settled by the sages that this Song describes the doings and sufferings of Israel, it only remained for the expositors to apply their exegetical canons, viz.: of transposing, changing, or omitting letters; explaining words by others of a similar sound; making each letter of a word begin another word; reducing an expression to its numerical value, and explaining the text accordingly, &c. &c., in order to palm upon this book, in a consecutive order, the remarkable events in connection with the history of the Jews. Thus, the love of God to Israel, which was greater than to all the seventy other nations mentioned in Ch. i. 2, was obtained by reducing the word ‏יין‎ to its numerical value, seventy; the two worlds, in verse 3, which the pious are to inherit, were obtained by changing ‏עלמות‎ maidens, into ‏עולמות‎ worlds, according to the example of the Talmud; [39] the twenty-two letters with which the Law is written, in verse 4, were obtained by reducing the word ‏בך‎ to its numerical value; the Tabernacle, in verse 5, was obtained from the word ‏ירעות‎, and the effected peace by changing the proper name ‏שלמה‎ into ‏שלום‎ peace; the worship of the sun and moon, in verse 6, was obtained from the word ‏שמש‎ sun; the ploughing bullock, in verse 10, was obtained by changing ‏תורים‎ ringlet, and ‏חרוזים‎ necklace, into ‏תור חרז‎; the two tables shining as the best gold, verse 11, were obtained by rendering ‏תורי זהב‎ golden Laws, and the seven times seven, or the forty different interpretations of the Law, by reducing the word ‏זהב‎ to its numerical value, ‏ז‎ being seven, and ‏ה‎ and ‏ב‎ seven, and then multiplying seven by seven; the binding of Isaac, in verse 13, was obtained by rendering ‏צרור המור‎ by ‏ערור המוריה‎ the binding of Moriah; the sin of the calf, and the atonement of that, in verse 14, were obtained by changing ‏עין גדי‎ En-gedi, into ‏עון עגל‎ the sin of the calf, and by substituting ‏כפר‎ pardon, for ‏כופר‎ cypress-flower, according to the example of the Talmud. [40] This is the development of Hagadic exegesis, and this the paraphrase appealed to in support of the allegorical interpretation, and in the track of which future allegorists more or less follow.