the name of a woman) does not mean the Rose which was brought at a later period from Armenia and Persia, as it appears,[1] and cultivated in the East (India) and West (Palestine, Egypt, Europe). It is nowhere mentioned in the canonical Scriptures, but is first found in Sir. 24:14; 39:13; 50:8; Wisd. 2:8; and Est 1:6, lxx. Since all the rosaceae are five-leaved, and all the liliaceae are six-leaved, one might suppose, with Aben Ezra, that the name sosan (susan) is connected with the numeral שׁשׁ, and points to the number of leaves, especially since one is wont to represent to himself the Eastern lilies as red. But they are not only red, or rather violet, but also white: the Moorish-Spanish azucena denotes the white lily.[2]
The root-word will thus, however, be the same as that of שׁשׁ, byssus, and שׁישׁ, white marble. The comparison reminds us of Hos 14:5, “I shall be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily.” העמקים are deep valleys lying between mountains. She thinks humbly of herself; for before the greatness of the king she appears diminutive, and before the comeliness of the king her own beauty disappears - but he takes up her comparison of herself, and gives it a notable turn.
Verse 2
Sol 2:2 2 As a lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters.
By החוחים are not meant the thorns of the plant itself, for the lily has no thorns, and the thorns of the rose are, moreover, called kotsim, and not hhohhim;[3] besides, ben (among) contradicts that idea, since the thorns are on the plant itself, and it is not among them - thus the hhohhim are not the thorns of the flower-stem, but the thorn-plants that are around. חוח designates the thorn-bush, e.g., in the allegorical answer of King Josiah to Amaziah, 2Ki 14:9. Simplicity, innocence, gentleness, are the characteristics in which Shulamith surpasses all בּנות, i.e., all women (vid., Sol 6:9), as the lily of the valley surpasses the thorn-bushes around it. “Although thorns surround her, yet can he see her; he sees her quiet life, he finds her beautiful.” But continuing this reciprocal rivalry in the praise of mutual love, she says:
- ↑ Vid., Ewald, Jahrbuch, IV p. 71; cf. Wüstemann, Die Rose, etc., 1854.
- ↑ Vid., Fleischer, Sitzungs-Berichten d. Sächs. Gesell. d. Wissensch. 1868, p. 305. Among the rich flora on the descent of the Hauran range, Wetstein saw (Reisebericht, p. 148) a dark-violet magnificent lily (susan) as large as his fist. We note here Rückert's “Bright lily! The flowers worship God in the garden: thou art the priest of the house.”
- ↑ An Aramaic proverb: “from thorns sprouts the rose” (i.e., bad fathers have often pious children), in Heb. is קוץ מוציא שׁושׁן; vid., Jalkut Samuel, §134.
