The Song of Songs, Which Is by Solomon; A New Translation with a Commentary and Notes

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1803. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... SECTION V. Chap. III. Ver. 2--5. Spouse. Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. ' I will avise 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. The watchmen, who go round the city, found me; ' Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth?' Scarcely had I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him to my mother's house, To the apartment of her who bore me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the antelopes, and by the hinds of the field, That ye disturb not, nor awake this lovely one un-. til he please. THIS scene evidently opens with the morning: and I confess myself well satisfied with the hypothesis of Hufnagel, Dathe, and Doderlein, that this and the similar passage in chap. v. relate the dreams of the spouse; indeed the latter passage is express, for no language can more justly and beautifully describe a dream than that of the spouse, ' I slept, but my heart wak' ed.' And though the same introduction is not: used here, a parity of circumstances, and similitude of style, lead us naturally to the same conclusion. Solomon says ' a dream cometh from the mul. titude of business: ' and, without entering into the theory of dreaming, we may observe from our own experience, that the same objects which exercise the mind by day, often agitate it by night. The merchant dreams of business, the sportsman of the chace, and the lover of the beloved object. Thus it is with the spouse here. She had been ardently desirous of the presence of her beloved, and in her dream she anticipates his return: ' Upon my bed bv night I sought 'him.' But there is another reason..