and then fills always the more widely the whole horizon. The Venet. translates ὡς ἑωσφοìρος; but the morning star is not שׁחר, but בּן־שׁחר, Isa 14:12; shahhar, properly, the morning-dawn, means, in Heb., not only this, like the Arab. shahòar, but rather, like the Arab. fajr, the morning-red, - i.e., the red tinge of the morning mist. From the morning-red the description proceeds to the moon, yet visible in the morning sky, before the sun has risen. It is usually called ירח, as being yellow; but here it is called לבנה, as being white; as also the sun, which here is spoken of as having risen (Jdg 5:31), is designated not by the word שׁמשׁ, as the unwearied (Psa 19:6, Psa 19:6), but, on account of the intensity of its warming light (Psa 19:7), is called חמּה. These, in the language of poetry, are favourite names of the moon and the sun, because already the primitive meaning of the two other names had disappeared from common use; but with these, definite attributive ideas are immediately connected. Shulamith appears like the morning-red, which breaks through the darkness; beautiful, like the silver moon, which in soft still majesty shines in the heavens (Job 31:26); pure (vid., regarding בּר, בּרוּר in this signification: smooth, bright, pure under Isa.Isa 49:2) as the sun, whose light (cf. טהור with the Aram. מיהרא, mid-day brightness) is the purest of the pure, imposing as war-hosts with their standards (vid., Sol 6:4). The answer of her who was drawing near, to this exclamation, sounds homely and childlike:
Verses 11-12
Sol 6:11-12 11 To the nut garden I went down To look at the shrubs of the valley, To see whether the vine sprouted, The pomegranates budded. 12 I knew it not that my soul lifted me up To the royal chariots of my people, a noble (one).
In her loneliness she is happy; she finds her delight in quietly moving about in the vegetable world; the vine and the pomegranate, brought from her home, are her favourites. Her soul - viz. love for Solomon, which fills her soul - raised her to the royal chariots of her people, the royal chariots of a noble (one), where she sits besides the king, who drives the chariot; she knew this, but she also knew it not for what she had become without any cause of her own, that she is without self-elation and without disavowal of her origin. These are Shulamith's thoughts and feelings, which we think we derive from these two verses without reading between the lines and without refining. It went down, she says, viz., from the royal palace, cf. Sol 6:2. Then, further, she speaks of a valley; and the whole sounds rural, so
