Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
My spouse - The callah which we translate spouse, seems to have a peculiar meaning. Mr. Harmer thinks the Jewish princess is intended by it; and this seems to receive confirmation from the bridegroom calling her sister, Song of Songs 4:9, that is, one of the same stock and country; and thus different from the Egyptian bride.
Mr. Harmer' s opinion is very probable, that Two Queens are mentioned in this song: one Pharaoh' s daughter, the other a Jewess. See his outlines. But I contend for no system relative to this song.
Look from the top of Amana, etc. - Solomon, says Calmet, by an admirable poetic fiction, represents his beloved as a mountain nymph, wholly occupied in hunting the lion and the leopard on the mountains of Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. As a bold and undisciplined virgin, who is unwilling to leave her wild and rural retreats, he invites her to come from those hills; and promises to deck her with a crown and to make her his bride. Thus the poets represent their goddess Diana, and even Venus herself: -
Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur
Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianae;
Hortaturque canes; tutaeque animalia praedae,
Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum,
Aut agitat damas: at fortibus abstinet apris .
MET. lib. x., ver. 535.
Now buskin' d like the virgin huntress goes
Through woods, and pathless wilds, and mountain snows.
With her own tuneful voice she joys to cheer
The panting hounds that chase the flying deer.
She runs the labyrinth of the fearful hares,
But fearless beasts and dangerous prey forbears.
Mount Libanus separates Phoenicia from Syria. Amanus is between Syria and Silicia. Shenir and Hermon are beyond Jordan, to the south of Damascus and Mount Libanus, and northward of the mountains of Gilead. Hermon and Shenir are but different parts of the same chain of mountains which separates Trachonitis, or the country of Manasses, from Arabia Deserta. For these places, see II Kings 5:12, and Deuteronomy 3:9, where they are probably meant.
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