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Song of Solomon 8:4

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up,

nor awake my love, until he please. The phrase, "by the roes and by the hinds of the field", used in Song of Solomon 2:7; is here omitted; not as if the charge was less vehement and earnest here, for the form of expostulation seems rather to express more earnestness: for the words may be rendered, "why will ye", or "why should ye stir up, and why awake my love?" {i} being apprehensive they were about to do it; and which she dissuades from, as unreasonable and dangerous, and might be prejudicial to them as well as to her. The allusion is to virgins, that sung songs at marriages; one in the evening, lulling to sleep; and another in the morning, awaking and stirring up from it {k}.


{i} hm, "cur", Montanus, Schmidt.
{k} Vid. Theocrit. Idyll. 18.

 

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