Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Instead of sweet smell "perfume" - A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatic ladies consists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes; an attention to which is in some degree necessary in those hot countries. Frequent mention is made of the rich ointments of the spouse in the Song of Solomon, Song of Songs 4:10, Song of Songs 4:11 : -
"How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse!
How much more excellent than wine;
And the odour of thine ointments than all perfumes!
Thy lips drop as the honey-comb, my spouse!
Honey and milk are under thy tongue:
And the odor of thy garments is as the odour of Lebanon."
The preparation for Esther' s being introduced to King Ahasuerus was a course of bathing and perfuming for a whole year; "six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours;" Esther 2:12 (note). A diseased and loathsome habit of body, instead of a beautiful skin, softened and made agreeable with all that art could devise, and all that nature, so prodigal in those countries of the richest perfumes, could supply, must have been a punishment the most severe and the most mortifying to the delicacy of these haughty daughters of Sion.
Burning instead of beauty "A sunburnt skin" - Gaspar Sanctius thinks the words ki thachath an interpolation, because the Vulgate has omitted them. The clause ki thachath yophi seems to me rather to be imperfect at the end. Not to mention that ki , taken as a noun for adustio , burning, is without example, and very improbable. The passage ends abruptly, and seems to want a fuller conclusion.
In agreement with which opinion, of the defect of the Hebrew text in this place, the Septuagint, according to MSS. Pachom. and 1 D. ii., and Marchal., which are of the best authority, express it with the same evident marks of imperfection at the end of the sentence; thus: The two latter add . This chasm in the text, from the loss probably of three or four words, seems therefore to be of long standing.
Taking ki in its usual sense, as a particle, and supplying lech from the of the Septuagint, it might possibly have been originally somewhat in this form: -
\trowd \trgaph108 \trleft0 x1177 x2182 x3162 x4469 x5563 x6955 x7651
d \qr
d \row \trowd \trgaph108 \trleft0 x1177 x2182 x3162 x4469 x5563 x6955 x7651
d \qr marah
raath
lech
thihyeh
yophi
thachath
ki
d \row
d
\ri720 "Yea, instead of beauty thou shalt have an illfavoured countenance."
ki thachath yophi (q. yachath ), "for beauty shall be destroyed." Syr. chathath or nachath .-Dr. Durell.
"May it not be cohey , ' wrinkles instead of beauty?' as from yaphah is formed yephi , yophi ; from marah , meri , etc.; so from cahah , to be wrinkled, cohey ." - Dr. Jubb. The ki is wanting in one MS., and has been omitted by several of the ancients.
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