THE BOOK OF CANTICLES, OR, SONG OF SOLOMON, ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH VERSION, REVISED AND EXPLAINED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW. Ερευνᾶτε τὰς γραφὰς, ὅτι ὑμεῖς δοκεῖτε ἐν αὐταῖς ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἔχειν, καὶ "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are Second Edition. LONDON: RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE; BAILEY, KESWICK. 1859. 107. h. 317. THE BOOK OF CANTICLES, OR, SONG OF SOLOMON, ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH VERSION, REVISED AND EXPLAINED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW. "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Ephes. v. 32. AFTER long study of the Hebrew Scriptures, with a view to sceptical objections, whose force lay in the imperfections of translations, the writer found that in this book many difficulties disappeared under patient investigation ; still there were some that had not yielded. In Dr. Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature there is an article on this book by Professor Stowe, of Cincinnati, in which many of these remaining difficulties are satisfactorily met. On most points the two students had arrived at the same conclusion-on some minor ones where they do not coincide it is easy to agree to differ. This increase of light has been like the introduction of a torch into a sparry cavern, not only guiding the bewildered, but on every side revealing hidden beauties. It is here endeavoured to keep close to the original; where this translation differs from that in common use it is with that object; where in some other places in Scripture the word altered is used with the meaning here selected, that place is designated; when the word does not occur elsewhere, it is rendered as the root of the word allows. It should be observed, that in this book Solomon is not the mortal king, but the Prince of Peace; by the ancient Jews understood to be the expected "King Messiah';" by the early Christian Church, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bride has been held to typify the Church by both. The Bride, the Betrothed, before and at the first coming of Christ, becomes the Lamb's Wife at and after the second. The Bridegroom of His Church speaks of the Bride's moral perfections even more than of her external beauty. The 1 The great names of Aben Ezra among the Jews, of Rosenmüller among the Germans, and Moses Stuart among modern commentators, may be cited as holding the view here advocated. Aben Ezra calls it "profanation" to give any but a spiritual meaning to this book. B daughters of Jerusalem admiring her beauty, admire also her superb raiment; she is clothed with the righteousness of her Lord, arrayed in His glory. In some cases it may be found that the modern Jews themselves take the least refined view of the meaning. Similar instances occur in poetry far less ancient and difficult. Should the pointing of the Hebrew text sometimes seem to require accommodation, it must be remembered that manuscripts vary, and that points, however ancient, however useful, are of human, not divine, origin. There are in Hebrew two words for love, one, Aheva, desiring1; another, (whence David,) abiding, satisfying love. They may here be distinguished by 1 and 2, as the genders by * masculine, † feminine. These, as well as the beautiful word for a female friend, meaning a companion with whom to feed, break bread, (consequently in the East a bride or wife,) are very imperfectly appreciated in translations. The ancient Jews understood this book to be an allegory of God's love to the Jewish Church; the early Christians understood it as shadowing forth the love of Christ to the Christian Church, typified under the same figure by St. Paul, Eph. v. 32. A very large portion of the Christian Church in all ages has so considered it, and so it is interpreted here. Being part of the Jewish canon, to which our Lord referred as "the Scriptures," thus giving it His infallible sanction, no further evidence of its inspiration need be sought: it is part of that Word of God "which cannot be broken." Similar faith in the inspiration of the Apocalypse has always existed in the Christian Church. Before any of its predictions had been explained by the events, that faith reposed on its internal divineness. The words were of God, spoken by the glorified Redeemer to all coming time. By such as knew and loved His words in the Gospel, the words of the Apocalypse were recognized as His. In both these mysterious portions of the "One Book," the Bible, the subject is the same, the love of Christ to His Church, her wanderings, her woes, her final union to her Lord in glory. Her inward feelings, those more or less experienced by every believer, are especially dwelt on in the earlier, her outward trials and earthly vicissitudes, in the later book. The termination of those troubles is in both the same. At the end of the Canticles the bride comes up out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved; as the bride of the Apocalypse, after long exile in its dreary solitudes, is brought to the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the abode of peace, wherein is the throne of God and of the Lamb. It has been inferred that the English translation of the Book of Canticles could not be depended upon as to the speeches of the different speakers, from the difference of some of the ancient translations, especially as given in Walton's Polyglot, but this difficulty is here met. The English Version generally agrees with the pointed Hebrew that is given in Bagster's Polyglot, which is the received text. Ancient translations may have been made from corrupt MSS., or from unpointed ones, in which case the gender of particular words could not always be clearly determined. As for instance the pronouns "thou," "thee," and "thy," which in the spoken and pointed Hebrew are distinguished, but not in the unpointed. It is scarcely necessary to explain that the points express unwritten vowels, by which some pronouns and some parts of the verb are made feminine. The pronouns “he” and “she,” “this” and "that," do not depend on points, but are written with different letters, as are the feminine verbs in many parts of their conjugation. In these cases the gender does not admit of a doubt. In the Keri, or Jewish correction of their MSS., nothing occurs to alter the genders of the speakers, as given in the received text, though in chap. iv. 9, the gender of the adjective "one," as applied to 1 Gen. xxix. 18. 20. Jer. xxxi. 3, &c. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 12. Isa. v. 1. 66 'eyes," is made regular. The verses in which the gender is fixed by letters, and not by mere points, are these: i. 9. 13, 14, 15, 16; ii. 2, 3. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 13. 16, 17; iii. 1 to 5, 6. 11; iv. 1. 7 to 12. 16; v. 1, 2. 4, 5, 6. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; vi. 1, 2, 3, 4. 9, 10. 13; vii. 1 to 5, 6, 7, 8. 10, 11. 13; viii. 5. 8. 13, 14. In other places the pronouns "thou," "thee," "thy," determine the genders by their points, with which the English generally agrees. But in chap. viii. 5, 2nd clause, where the English is indefinite, the unpointed Hebrew is equally so, though the points make the five pronouns masculine. The verb translated "to raise" cannot apply to an infant, but is "to wake," as in chap. v. 2; iii. 5; iv. 16. In chap. ii. 1, it is probably the Bride who speaks, as there are two forms of the noun "lily," and the feminine is here used. Though a noun-substantive be not altered in gender to suit the speaker, yet where there are two forms, as ww and now, the use of the feminine would indicate a woman being the thing compared to it. "Rose" is always feminine, and though in Hebrew the comparison might be applied to the King, it is less likely; still it must be remem-. bered that in Prov. viii. and Hag. ii. a noun with a feminine (or rather neuter) termination is so applied 1. Luther prefaces his "High Song" of Solomon, by saying it is the desire of the Christian Church for her bridegroom Christ, and that the Christian Church longs for her bridegroom Christ in expectation and betrothment. Some have held, that in the Canticles were set forth "the several ages and periods of the Christian Church, in agreement with the seven Churches of Asia, as Cocceius and those that follow him; as thus The Ephesian Church, Cant. i. 5-7, from the Ascension of Christ to A.D. 370; The Church at Pergamos, Cant. iii. 1-11, from A.D. 708 to 1045; but these senses are very arbitrary, uncertain, and precarious." (Gill.) "There seem to be allusions and references to various passages of this book in the New Testament; see Matt. xxi. 33; xxv. 1. Mark xii. 1. Luke xx. 9. Matt. xxv. 1, &c. John iii. 8. 29; vi. 44. 2 Cor. xi. 2. Eph. v. 27, and Col. ii. 17. Rev. iii. 20; xix. 7, 8, compared with Cant. i. 3, 4; ii. 17; iv. 7. 16; v. 1, 2; vii. 13; viii. 11, 12." (Gill.) The ancient Jews called this book "the holy of holies;" the Syriac version," the wisdom of wisdoms of Solomon." 66 By the Jews, ancient and modern, its inspiration and authenticity have never been questioned. 'They have a saying, that wherever the word Solomon is used in this Song the Holy One is meant, the Holy God, or Messiah 2." That they were familiarized by the prophets with this allegorical showing forth of the love of the Redeemer to the Church may be seen in the subjoined texts. Might it not be imparted to Adam before the fall or the creation of Eve? Betrothing, Hos. ii. 16-20. Isa. liv. 5. Espousals, Jer. ii. 2; iii. 14. 2 Cor. xi. Rev. xix. 17. (Isa. 1. 1, divorcements.) Gen. ii. Bride, Isa. xlix. 18; lxi. 10; lxii. 5; Rev. xix. 1 On "Rose see Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon. 2 Maimonides, quoted by Gill. |