Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Tell me - where thou feedest - This is spoken as if the parties were shepherds, or employed in the pastoral life. But how this would apply either to Solomon, or the princes of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments. See that fine one composed by Milton, called Comus.
To rest at noon - In hot countries the shepherds and their flocks are obliged to retire to shelter during the burning heats of the noon-day sun. This is common in all countries, in the summer heats, where shelter can be had.
One that turneth aside - As a wanderer; one who, not knowing where to find her companions, wanders fruitlessly in seeking them. It was customary for shepherds to drive their flocks together for the purpose of conversing, playing on the pipe, or having trials of skill in poetry or music. So Virgil: -
Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis
Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum:
Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas;
Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo,
Et cantare pares, et respondere parati .
Ecclesiastes 7:1.
"Beneath a holm repair' d two jolly swains:
Their sheep and goats together grazed the plains;
Both young Arcadians, both alike inspired
To sing and answer as the song required."
Dryden.
This does not express the sense of the original: from the different pastures in which they had been accustomed to feed their flocks, they drove their sheep and goats together for the purpose mentioned in the pastoral; and, in course, returned to their respective pasturages, when their business was over.
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