12 His eyes, like doves in water streams,
Are bathing in milk, sitting on fulness;
13 His cheeks are like beds of balsam,
Elevations of aromatic plants;
His lips are like lilies distilling liquid myrrh.
14 His hands like golden cylinders, inlaid with chrysolite,
Gesenius, De Wette, &c., pendulous branches of the palm; but this signification does not lie in the root [HE: t.olal], which simply means waving, hanging, or flowing down; hence [HE: t.al^et.al.iym/] (according to the analogy of [HE: zal^ezal.iym/] and [HE: sal^esal.iym/], comp. Ewald, § 158, b) flowing curls, locks.
12. His eyes, like doves, &c. The vivid and black pupils of his eyes, sparkling forth from the encircling lactean white, in which they are, as it were, bathing and sitting on the fountain of tears, resemble doves bathing gaily in pellucid streams. The doves themselves, and not their eyes, are the point of comparison (vide supra, i. 15, and iv. 1.) Doves are very fond of bathing, and hence choose for their abode regions abounding with streams (Boch. Hieroz. ii. 1, c. 2.) The deep blue or grey dove, reflecting the lustrous dark hue about its neck when bathing in the limpid brook, suggested this beautiful simile. A similar figure occurs in the Gitagovinda: "The glances of her eyes played like a pair of water-birds of azure plumage, that sport near a full-blown lotos in a pool in the season of dew." The words [HE: rOHa:xvOt b.eHolob], bathing in milk, referring to the eyes, are descriptive of the milky white in which the black pupils of the eyes are, as it were, bathing. [HE: `al mil.E't], on the fulness, also referring to the eyes, correspond to the [HE: `al 'a:piyqEy mayim/], by the brooks of water, which are predicated of the doves. Hodgson's rendering of [HE: yS/^ebvOt[*Original Typo for yOS/^ebvOt] `al mil.E't], by "and dwell among the ripe corn," is absurd.
13. His cheeks are like beds of balsam, &c. His round cheeks with the pullulating beard, resemble beds growing aromatic plants. The Sept., Arabic, Æth., Chald., read [HE: m^egad.ilvOt], the part. Piel, instead of [HE: mig^ed.^elvOt], which many modern commentators follow, but without MS. authority. The lily here referred to is most probably the crown imperial, of a deep red colour, whose leaves contain an aqueous humidity, which gathers itself in the form of pearls, especially at noon, and distils clear and pellucid drops; see Rosenmüller, Alther, iv. 138; Winer, Bib. Dict. s. v. There is, however, no necessity for referring the words "distilling liquid myrrh," to the lilies. Indeed, it seems to be more consonant with the context, to take them as predicated of the lips, expressing the sweetness of his conversation. Comp. iv. 11.
14. His hands are like, &c. His rounded arms and fingers tipped with well-shaped nails, as if inlaid with precious stones, resemble golden cylinders: and his white and smooth body, covered with a delicate blue vest, resembles polished ivory. [HE: g.oliyl]] (from [HE: g.olal], to roll), a roller, a cylinder. Kleuker, Gesenius, Döpke, &c., translate [HE: yodoyv g.^eliylay zohob vgv", his hands are like golden rings, adorned with gems of Tarshish, comparing the hand when closed or bent to a golden ring, and the dyed nails to the gems in the rings. But [HE: g.oliyl] never occurs in the sense of a ring worn on the finger; the word so used is [HE: Tab.a`at], which would have been used here had the figure meant what Kleuker, &c. understood by it. [HE: t.ar^eS/iyS/], according to the Sept., Aquila, Josephus, and modern writers, is the chrysolite, and owes its Hebrew name to the circumstance that it was first found in Tartessus, that ancient city in Spain, between the two mouths of the river Bactis (Guadalquiver). The chrysolite, as its name imports
