beloved-that prefer the happiness of Zion to their chief joy; or, as the expression here is, that celebrate her love more than wine'-more than all the conveniencies, comforts, and felicities of human life. 3. The ground of all this is integrity and uprightness of heart- The upright love thee'.' Man is a fallen creature, by nature destitute of love to God and goodness: grace alone makes man upright, and fills the heart with divine love: and in proportion as this grace prevails that love will more and more abound. The notion of loving virtue for its own sake, independent of love to God, and irrespective of his love to us, is a fiction of infidel philosophy. Ver. 5, 6. Spouse. Dark am I, but comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem, These verses contain an apology for the spouse's complexion, which it has been found difficult to explain literally, and no less so to apply figuratively. Let us examine it. Her complexion was dark; not naturally, but accidentally; and yet Aben Ezra takes for the adjective to winewine that goes down smoothly;' but I conceive the common rendering to be more just and better sense. Dark am I but comely.'-The original word (mw), which I have rendered dark, properly intends the dusk or early dawn.-Bp. PATRICK. 'Gaze not.'-The common rendering look not,' is too ' Of her person was beautiful. She was dark as the ⚫tents of Kedar,' or of the Arabians, which, according to some writers, were made of black goat's hair, or, according to others, died black. The comparing her complexion to these tents may be a poetical exaggeration, to heighten the beauty of the contrast with the curtains of Solomon, probably those of his pavilion or state tent, which were doubtless very superb and beautiful; for the easterns spare no expence in these cases'. this Mr. HARMER gives some remarkable instances from the travels of Egmont and Hayman. The tent of the grand signior was covered and lined with silk. More recently, Nadir Shaw had a very superb one covered on the outside with scarlet broad cloth, and lined within with violetcoloured satin, ornamented with a great variety, of animals, flowers, &c. formed entirely of pearls and precious stones3. To account for her dark complexion, she mentions her exposure to the scorching sun,' which weak; the word evidently means to look stedfastly, with attention and admiration. See Gen. vi. 12. Prov. xxiii. 31. Six MSS. read (and two more did read) 'fear not,' which reading is preferred by Doderlein, but I conceive, without sufficient reason. 1 The LXX read Suggus, the skins of Solomon, supposing his curtains to be made of skins, which is possible enough: but one would have hardly thought it possible that a commentator and a bishop could have been weak enough to apply it to the sleekness of Solomon's own skin! as Bp. FOLIOT did in the twelfth century. 2 Memoirs of Khojah Abdulkurreem, p. 31. • On Sol. Song, p. 186. 1 had darted his full beams' upon her'. For though the natives of Egypt are generally dark, and far southward toward Ethiopia, almost black'; yet those of high rank being protected from the sun are pretty fair, and would be reckoned such even in Britain. Mr. HARMER Conceives the complexion of this princess might have been spoiled by her journey to Judea; but this appears to me very improbable. The sacred poet clearly attributes it to the anger of her brothers, who, perhaps piqued at her superior talents, or offended The sun hath beamed on me.'-This word (w), which is evidently poetic, is used only in two other passages, both in Job, where I think it will scarcely bear any other rendering than I have given it. Chap. xx. 9. The ( eye which beamed on him shall not add' [to beam on him :] i. e. shall beam on him no more. Chap. xxviii. 7. • The vulture's eye hath not beamed on it.'-Mr. PARKHURST says' glanced;' hut that term is too weak to express such an action of the sun as materially tans the complexion. 2 Because I am black.'-Some critics have suggested that the spouse was literally a black, the daughter of an Ethiopian woman: but 1. This agrees not with her own account, that her complexion was occasioned by exposure to the sun. 2. It agrees not with the subsequent description that her cheeks were like the pomegranate, &c. 3. There is no ground for it in the text; the term black, applied ta the countenance, in other texts not intending absolute but comparative and adventitious blackness-the effect of grief, famine, &c. The original word here is the same as in the preceding verses, only rendered more emphatical by the reduplication of the two last radicals (nn) valde fusca,' Bochart. Prorsus, vel valde, et tota nigra,' Markius, Michaelis. So Gill- very black.' See (in Heb.) Ps. xlv. 5. Prov. viii. 31. with her religion', had occasioned her being sent to a more southerly part of the country, where she had neglected her personal charms, and, by exposure to the sun, become very swarthy. One of those revolutions common in eastern courts, where every thing usually depends on the caprice of the prince, or of his favourite, might occasion her recal; the beauty of her features might on this occasion be the more remarked; and reaching the ears of the king of Israel, together with her conversion, might lay the foundation of her future fortune. That she was sent to keep vineyards need not be literally taken. Her meaning may be, that she was sent to reside among them, as if she had been employed in a menial capacity—as a keeper of the vineyards; or, it is probable she might have the care and management of some infant sisters, and thus have been the guardian of their beauty, while she neglected her own, And this And this may be intended by her vineyard, as being the natural object of a virgin's care; since the Jews by this term usually intend whatever is a person's proper duty or employment2. It is possible, however, the words may admit a literal interpretation, for she In the preliminary essays (page 67) I have hinted the probability that this lady was a proselyte to the Jewish religion; and if we allow ourselves to suppose her conversion to have taken place early in life, it will very sufficiently account for the anger and resentment of her brothers; and the report of this circumstance afterward would be a pow, erful recommendation to the court of Solomon. 2 See Bp. Patrick's Paraphrase, and Mr. Binnel in Bp. Percy. So Dr, Gill remarks, Horace calls his own works, · Vineta.'—Epist. 1. lib. ii. had a vineyard of her own, and might have superintended it herself, before she let it out to keepers1. Let us now consider the allegorical application of the passage. Most commentators have referred this to moral defilement. The TARGUM applies it to the idolatry of the golden calf by the Israelites, that then their faces became as black' as 'the Ethiopians who dwell in the tents of Kedar;' but afterwards, on repentance and forgiveness, beautiful and bright as those of angels.' And St. AUGUSTINE says, the church is black by nature, and beautiful by grace.' But these applications are evidently contrary to the text, which supposes the blackness here spoken of to be, not natural, but acquired and adventitious; and at the same time consistent with her beauty- black • but comely.' ment. The ancient book of ZOHAR explains this blackness much better of a state of captivity or slavery black with grief, mourning and astonishSo David in his mourning was black all the day long; and Jeremiah was black with grief and sorrow. There is perhaps in this expression a distant allusion to the state of Israel in Egypt (a circumstance not unlikely to be known to Pharaoh's daughter) when they were reduced to the vilest servitude, exposed to the fiercest sun-beams, and at the same time, mourning un Chap. viii. 12. 5. 2 In all languages black signifies any thing that is sad, dismal, cruel or unfortunate.' Daubuz in Rev. vi. 3 Psal. xxxviii. 6. in Heb. Jer. viii. 21, xiv. 2. also Job xxx. 30. Joel ii. 6. Nah. ii. 10. See |