EXPOSITION OF THE SONG OF SONGS.
Chap. 1
Verse 1
The title of the book at once denotes that it is a connected whole, and is the work of one author. - Sol 1:1. The Song of Songs, composed by Solomon. The genitival connection, “Song of Songs,” cannot here signify the Song consisting of a number of songs, any more than calling the Bible “The Book of books” leads us to think of the 24 + 27 canonical books of which it consists. Nor can it mean “one of Solomon's songs;” the title, as it here stands, would then be the paraphrase of שׁיר שׁירי שׁ, chosen for the purpose of avoiding the redoubled genitives; but “one of the songs” must rather have been expressed by שׁיר משּׁירי. It has already been rightly explained in the Midrash:[1] “the most praiseworthy, most excellent, most highly-treasured among the songs.” The connection is superl. according to the sense (cf. ἄῤῥητα ἀῤῥήτων of Sophocles), and signifies that song which, as such, surpasses the songs one and all of them; as “servant of servants,” Gen 9:25, denotes a servant who is such more than all servants together. The plur. of the second word is for this superl. sense indispensable (vid., Dietrich's Abhand. zur hebr. Gramm. p. 12), but the article is not necessary: it is regularly wanting where the complex idea takes the place of the predicate, Gen 9:25; Exo 29:37, or of the inner member of a genitival connection of words, Jer 3:19; but it is also wanting in other places, as Eze 16:7 and Ecc 1:2; Ecc 12:8, where the indeterminate plur. denotes not totality, but an unlimited number; here it was necessary, because a definite Song - that, namely, lying before us - must be designated as the paragon of songs. The relative clause, “asher lishlōmō,” does not refer to the single word “Songs” (Gr. Venet. τῶν τοῦ), as it would if the expression were שׁיר מהשּׁ, but to the whole idea of “the Song of Songs.” A relative clause of similar formation and reference occurs at 1Ki 4:2 : “These are the princes, asher lo, which belonged
- ↑ Vid., Fürst's Der Kanon des A. T. (1868), p. 86.
