seeking her beloved finds him in the gardens, or pleasure grounds, belonging to the palace, and there again receives his commendations. Tirzah was a royal city, the residence of one of the antient princes of Canaan', and afterwards of Jeroboam and his successors. From its name, which signifies well-pleasing, it appears to have been famous for the beauty of its situation, or its buildings, and perhaps for both. Jerusalem, if not more beautiful, was certainly, as the capital of the kingdom, and the joy of the whole earth, more noble, august, and grand. From the laws of climax we should expect the third image to rise proportionably upon the two former; but its exact import is not easily ascertained. The original term seems applicable to any object bannered; and the antient eastern banners I suppose were streamers with pots of fire, in the nature of beacons, on their tops. In the present instance analogy leads us to apply this image to those lofty towers 1 2 Josh. xii. 24. Kings xiv. 17. xv... 2 , both here and in ver. 10. some MSS. read m; but as I conceive the two roots 57 and 71 to be very near of kin, I suppose the difference unimportant. The radical idea of 7 I suppose to be borrowed from the solar flame, with a particular reference to its conic form, whence a cluster, a tower, &c. 17 (with the transposition of one letter) means a standard or streamer; either from its resemblance to a flame, or from a fire kept burning in an iron pot upon its top, especially in the night. [See Harmer's Observations, vol. I. p. 225, &c.] This root has occurred before. See note (1) page 289. and splendid domes in the East, which were richly gilt and decorated with streamers, and in some parts contained perpetual beacons on their summits. This will preserve the cli . max, and the harmony of the images, while it presents an object, I presume, not unworthy of the sacred poet. The spouse is represented fair and beautiful as Tirzah-comely, handsome, noble as Jerusalem-brilliant, dazzling, terrible, as the most formidable towers, with flaming spires and streaming banners. And this leads to the true meaning of the next sentence, Turn away thine eyes, for they have overcome me2; that is, I am surprised, charmed, and conquered by the beauty of thy person, the elegance of thy dress, and splendour of thine ornaments: just as a stranger might be overcome with astonishment, on beholding the beauty and splendour of these cities, and their ornaments. The same idea occurs, though differently expressed, in chap. iv. 9. Thou hast 1 A fair paraphrast gives, I observe, an interpretation somewhat similar: • Should Tirza with its lofty turrets rise, • Or Salem's golden spires the landscape paint, MRS. ROWE. 2 Few passages have been rendered more variously than this. The sense I have chosen appears to me most agreeable to the context, sufficiently literal, and, beside coinciding with the common translation, has good authorities, LXX. αлoστρεψον οφθαλμες σου απεναντιον μου. Montanus: Averte oculos tuos e regione mea: Withdraw thine eyes from tion,' i. e. from looking steadfastly on me. my sta * ravished my heart my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart.'... The following lines (verses 6 and 7), are, with the difference of one word, the same as occur in the 4th chapter (ver. 1-3), which has induced some critics rashly to pronounce them an interpolation. The antients, however, and even the modern poets of the East, are not so scrupulous of repetition; and the same rule of criticism would rob us of many other passages in this song-in the Proverbs-and in the Psalms. It is surely not unnatural for a lover to dwell upon the praises of his beloved, or to repeat his commendations. In the next paragraph, the only question is What queen and concubines are here referred to? I confess I am unwilling to believe that Solomon had, at this period of his life, formed a numerous seraglio, though afterwards we know it was his sin and folly so to do; on the contrary it seems intimated that at this time she was his only one: nor do I think his queens and concubines would have been disposed so to admire and extol a rival. But if we refer this passage to the court and family of Pharaoh, and the compliments his daughter received on setting out for Judea, I think the passage becomes more natural, spirited, and beautiful; and we wholly avoid the difficulty of supposing the author of a sacred allegory so far sunk in 'These words are in the Septuagint and Targum, though the former, it must be confessed, is not correct, as it omits one clause and adds another. 1 luxury and voluptuousness. As to the compliments they use, the last image only is attended with difficulty, and must be referred, I think, to some grand and awful phænomenon in the sky, as being associated with the fairness of the dawn, the beauty of the moon, and the splendour of the sun, How much these comparisons of the spouse to the heavenly bodies are in the style of eastern poetry has been already hinted, and will appear fully by the following quota tions. In Dr. Balfour's. Forins of Herkern' (a collection of Arabian MS, letters, &c.) a lover thus addresses his mistress: O moon of the heaven of goodness! O cypress of the garden of affection!' And she replies: "The moon of my beauty may soon shine from the window; and the tree of f my stature may cast its shadow on the terrace.' (See Mon. Rev. vol. lxxvi. p. 592.) The moon is an eastern emblem of chastity, as well as beauty. Moon of Canaan' is an epithet their writers usually give to the patriarch Joseph. Richardson's Specimens of Persian poetry, p. 434. A Persian writer says, The brightness of thy face is ⚫ more splendid than the cheek of day. Jones's Pers. Gram. p. 25. And the expression used by our translators, 'clear as the sun, ,"occurs in Bahur Danush, vol. iii. p. 6. Bp. Percy, and some other learned men, have thought that from the stars and planets being called the hosts of heaven, that they might be here intended; but they are always designated by a very different word (NY) Sabaoth. An ingenious critic has lately suggested that a comet might possibly be intended, and quotes from Richardson the following Arabian verses: • When I describe your beauty my thoughts are perplexed, Whether to compare it To the sun, to the moon, or to the wandering star.' This wandering star he supposes also to be a comet, as well as the streamers in our text; but both applications are doubtful, and particularly that of the sacred writer; and as Here I divide the section, and would relieve the reader from the dryness of these remarks by a few serious reflections avoiding as much as possible a repetition of what I have before offered. 1. The church of God is compared to a city, beautifully situated-nobly built-well defended-and elegantly decorated. • Beauti ful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is ⚫ mount Zion, the city of the great King.• Walk about Zion, and go round about her; 'tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may 'tell it to the generation to come'. Yea, the glory of the future state is described by the image of a great and glorious city-the New the original term is plural, I should rather refer it to the aurora borealis, as perfectly corresponding with the epithet • awful' or terrible, and as well describing the splendour of the spouse, and the awe inspired by her majestic presence. As, however, I have not at hand evidence that this phænomenon is particularly observable in Judea, I have in the comment applied the passage to another object, which, if not so terrifying, is certainly not less sublime and grand-the sun setting behind a crimson cloud, and gleaming between its interstices. After all, if we must confine the term I have rendered streamers to bannered hosts, in a sense strictly literal, I can in some measure account for the connection of the images from the eastern usage of bearing the images of the heavenly bodies in their standards. Thus the sun behind a lion (sol in leo) is the standard of the Great Mogul, and that of the crescent (or half moon) is borne by the followers of Mahomet; this custom however could not, I think, be adopted by the Jews themselves, consistent with the Mosaic law, though the Rabbins tell us they made this use of the cherubic figures. 2 Rev. xxi. 1 Ps. xlviii. 2, 12, 13. |