Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
The pillars - of silver - The bedposts were made of silver, or cased with wrought silver plates, like the king' s chairs brought from Hanover, now, in one of the staterooms in Windsor Castle.
The bottom thereof of gold - This may refer to cords made of gold thread, or to the mattress, which was made of cloth ornamented with gold.
The covering - of purple - Most probably the canopy.
The midst - paved with love - The counterpane, a superb piece of embroidery, wrought by some of the noble maids of Jerusalem, and, as a proof of their affection, respect, and love, presented to the bride and bridegroom, on their nuptial day. This is most likely to be the sense of the passage, though some suppose it to refer to the whole court.
A Turkish couch is made of wooden lattices painted and gilded; the inside is painted with baskets of flowers and nosegays, intermixed with little mottoes according to the fancy of the artist. Solomon' s couch may have been of the same kind, and decorated in the same way; and the paving with love may refer to the amatory verses worked either on the counterpane, hangings, or embroidered carpet. And as this was done by the daughters of Jerusalem, they might have expressed the most striking parts of such a chaste history of love as Halaly' s Leely and Mejnoon on the different parts. I see that Dr. Good is of this opinion. It is sufficiently probable.
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