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A. C. 1001.

u ch. iv. 10. Heb. thy

loves.

x John vi. 44.

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: " for *thy love is better than wine.

3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

4 * Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice +Or, they love in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: † the upright love thee.

thee uprightly.

1 Or, as one that is veiled.

Or, cypress.

y ch. iv. 1. & v. 19.

|| Or, my companion.

5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

8 ¶ If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

12 ¶ While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

13 A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of § camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.

15 Behold, thou art fair, || my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

ing this much discussed book, that it is a mystical allegory of the union of Christ and his Church, is supported by the best and most abundant evidence. No comparison is more general throughout the books of Scripture, than this of marriage, to express the love of God to his Church. For a full account of this beautiful dramatic poem, the various opinions which have been entertained respecting it, and the division of its contents in the form of scenes, acts, idyls, &c. vide Dr. Wells in loc.; Horne's Crit. Introd. vol. ii. p. 188, &c.; and Dr. Gray.

17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our of fir.

SONG OF SOLOMON 11.

rafters A.C. 1001.

1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. +I sat down under his shadow

with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the § banqueting house, and his
banner over me was love.

*Or, galleries.

+ Heb. I de lighted and sat down, &c.

Heb. palate.

Heb. house of wine.

|| Heb. straw

me with apples.

5 Stay me with flagons, || comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand z ch. viii. 3. doth embrace me.

7. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

Heb. Iadach. iii. 5. &

jure you.

viii. 4.

9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he b ver. 17. standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, + shewing himself through the lattice.

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

+ Heb. flourishing.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth c ch. vi. 3. & among the lilies.

e

hart

vii. 10.

17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, a ch. iv. 6. turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young upon the mountains of Bether.

SONG OF SOLOMON III.

1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

e ch. viii. 14. + Or, of divi

sion.

A. C. 1001.

f ch. ii. 7. & viii. 4.

g ch. viii. 5.

• Or, a bed.

h ch. i. 15 & v. 12.

i ch. vi 5, 6.

+ Or, that eat of, &c.

k ch. vii. 3.

1 ch. ii. 17. ↑ Heb.

breathe.

2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not.

3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5 'I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

SONG OF SOLOMON IV.

1 h Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, + that appear from mound Gilead.

2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

6 Until the day + break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

A.C. 1001.

m Eph. v. 27.

8 ¶ Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir" and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the n Deut. iii. 9. mountains of the leopards.

*

away my

9 Thou hast * ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; Or, taken thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with heart. one chain of thy neck.

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10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how och. i. 2. much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb : honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12 A garden + inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring + Heb. barred. shut up, a fountain sealed.

13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard.

Or, cypress.

14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with ch.1.1. all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

SONG OF SOLOMON V.

1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, § yea, drink abundantly, or, and be O beloved.

2¶I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved || for him.

5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with * sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he

drunken with loves.

|| Or, (as some

read) in me.

Heb. pass

ing, or, running about.

A. C. 1001. spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

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7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my *Heb. what. beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love.

+ Heb. a standardbearer.

Or, curled.

pch. i. 15. & iv. 1.

Heb.

9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of sitting Waters, washed with milk, and § fitly set.

in fulness, that is, fitly

13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as || sweet flowers : placed, and set his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

as a precious

stone in the

14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl his Or, towers of belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

foil of a ring.

perfumes.

* Heb. His palate.

q ch. ii. 16. & vii. 10.

+ Or, they have puffed me up.

rch. iv. 1, 2.

15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

16* His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem,

SONG OF SOLOMON VI.

1 Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

2 My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

3 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.: he feedeth among the lilies.

4 Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

5 Turn away thine eyes from me, for † they have overcome me thy hair is as a flock of goats that

Gilead.

r

appear

from

from

6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.

7 As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks.

8 There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.

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