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out this question of loving care for her sister. Besides, from the fact that with Sol 8:8 there commences the representation of a present occurrence, it is proved that the sister here spoken of is not Shulamith herself. If it were Shulamith herself, the words of Sol 8:8, Sol 8:9 would look back to what had previously taken place, which, as we have shown, is impossible. Or does Sol 6:9 require that we should think of Shulamith as having no sister? Certainly not, for so understood, these words would be purposeless. The “only one,” then, does not mean the only one numerically, but, as at Pro 4:3, it is emphatic (Hitzig); she is called by Solomon the “only one” of her mother in this sense, that she had not one her equal.
Thus it is Shulamith who here speaks, and she is not the “sister” referred to. The words, “we have a sister ... ,” spoken in the family circle, whether regarded as uttered by Shulamith or not, have something strange in them, for one member of a family does not need thus to speak to another. We expect: With regard to our sister, who is as yet little and not of full age, the question arises, What will be done when she has grown to maturity to guard her innocence? Thus the expression would have stood, but the poet separates it into little symmetrical sentences; for poetry present facts in a different style from prose. Hoelem. has on this remarked that the words are not to be translated: we have a little sister, which the order of the words וגו אחות ק would presuppose, Gen 40:20; cf. 2Sa 4:4; 2Sa 12:2 f.; Isa 26:1; Isa 33:21. “Little” is not immediately connected with “sister,” but follows it as an apposition; and this appositional description lays the ground for the question: We may be now without concern; but when she is grown up and will be courted, what then? “Little” refers to age, as at 2Ki 5:2; cf. Gen 44:20. The description of the child in the words, “she has no breasts,” has neither in itself nor particularly for Oriental feeling anything indecent in it (cf. mammae sororiarunt, Eze 16:7). The ל following מה־נּעשׂה is here not thus purely the dat. commodi, as e.g., Isa 64:3 (to act for some one), but indiff. dat. (what shall we do for her?); but מה is, according to the connection, as at Gen 27:37; 1Sa 10:2; Isa 5:4, equivalent to: What conducing to her advantage? Instead of בּיּום, the form בּיום lay syntactically nearer (cf. Exo 6:28); the art. in בּיּום is, as at Ecc 12:3, understood demonst.: that day when she will be spoken for, i.e., will attract the attention of a suitor. בּ after דּבּר may have manifold significations (vid., under Psa 87:3); thus the general signification of “concerning,” 1Sa 19:3, is modified in the sense of courting a wife, 1Sa 25:39. The brothers now take speech