Song of songs; or, sacred idyls / translated from the original Hebrew, with notes critical and explanatory by John Mason Good.

  • Old Testament [Bible].
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Song of songs; or, sacred idyls / translated from the original Hebrew, with notes critical and explanatory by John Mason Good. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    1 ! NOTES. 205 First I beheld thy beauties, blooming maid i W'ben o’er the hills, in every charm arrayed. Thy mother led thee, and thy fingers fair Plucked the wild hyacinths that blossomed there. • Oh ! as a signet print if on thy heart. The custom here . alluded to is common in most oriental countries even in the present day. It is given more largely, Esther viii. 8. “ Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and •.seal it-ioith the king's ring', for the writing which is written 1 in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no . man reverse.” So Jer. xxii. 24. “ As 1 live,” saith the Lord, “ though Coniah, son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were the s/gnc^upon my right hand, yet would 1 pluck him thence.” ' These rings or signets were occasionally w'orn ppon the bosom by means of an ornamental chain or other ligature fastened round the neck. Hence the advice of the author of the pre- sent poem in another book, Prov. vi. 12. “ Bind them upon thine heart, tie them about thy neck and again, ch. vii. 3. “ write them upon the-table of thine heart.” (5) ItsJlamcs are arroxes ] In the common version, “ The coals thereof are coals of fire.” In that of Dr. Percy, “ The sparks thereof arc sparks of fire.” In the Septuagint, thus ; HspiTiYE^a avtrjS H£pi-s:repoL Kvpop—“ The feathers” or “ wings thereof are wings of fire.” And by Dr. Hammond, to whose interpretation I have principally inclined, “The arrows thereof are arrows of fire.” (^) Fierce as theJlash xohen God's oum thunders roll.'] In the copy whence our common Bible is translated it is written