Here thy mother travailed,
Here labouring she gave thee birth.
6 Oh, place me as a seal upon thy heart,
As a seal upon thine hand!
"Oft on the rind I carved her amorous vows,
While she with garlands hung the bending boughs."
Here thy mother, &c. Confinements in the open air are of frequent occurrence in the East (Gen. xv. 16). "There are in Asia," says Dr. Chardin in his manuscript notes, "large districts in which no midwives are to be found, and even if some live there they are little known, for mothers assist their daughters, and often female relatives or neighbours fill the place of the former. In Kurman, I saw a woman who was delivered without any assistance in the open fields, three hours from a village, and to my great surprise, she arrived not much later in town where I was. The people there smiled at my astonishment, remarking that similar cases were very frequent in their country." (See Rosenmüller, Orient. i. 188; Paxton, Illustrations of Scripture, i. 462; Kalisch on Exod. p. 18.) [HE: `vOrEr], to excite, to move to love, vide supra, ii. 7; iii. 5; viii. 4. [HE: Hib.^elot^ek/o] does not mean conceived thee (Aquila, Schultens, Hitzig, &c.), which the Shulamite could not know, nor plighted, or engaged thee, (Houbigant, Michaelis, Percy, Kleuker, Good, Williams, Boothroyd, Magnus, Meier, &c.), which is contrary to the Piel signification of this verb, but signifies laboured with thee, (Sept., Syriac, Chaldee, Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Luther, Ewald, De Wette, Gesenius, Philippson, &c.); compare Ps. vii. 15, and Hupheld in loco. To put these words into the mouth of the bridegroom as addressing his bride, (Percy, Good, Williams, Boothroyd, Delitzsch, Hitzig, &c.), is contrary to the words in the text, which have masculine suffixes. The form [HE: Hib.^elot^ek/o] is used instead of [HE: Hib.^elat^ek/o], to correspond in sound with [HE: yol^edot^ek/o] in pause, vide supra, iii. 11. [HE: yol^erot^ek/o], i.q. [HE: yol^edoh 'vOt^ek/o]. The Vulgate, which seems here to savour of allegorism, translates [HE: S/om.oh Hib.^elot^ek/o 'im.ek/o S/om.oh Hib.^el.oh y^elodot^ek/o], ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua. "The tree," the Roman Catholics explain of the cross; "the individual" excited to love under it, the Gentiles redeemed by Christ at the foot of the cross; and "the deflowered and corrupted mother" means, the synagogue of the Jews (the mother of the Church), which was corrupted by denying and crucifying the Saviour.
6. Oh, place me as a seal, &c. That is, "Let me be near and dear to thee." The Shulamite, having shown her faithfulness during a period of extraordinary trials, could now look up to the witnessing tree with an inward satisfaction. It is therefore very natural that she should remind her beloved, in the presence of this witness, of his vows. In ancient times, when the art of writing was confined to a very few, and writing materials were not so easily procurable, rings or signets, with names engraven upon them, were generally used as manual signs. This contrivance for a signature soon became used as an ornament. People who could afford it had these seals or signets made of silver or gold, inlaid with precious stones. Being indispensable articles of use, and highly prized as decorations, they were carried in the bosom, suspended from the neck by a string (Gen. xxxviii. 15), or were worn on the right hand (Jer. xxii. 24; Sirach xlix. 11), and thus became a symbol of what is dear and indispensable. Jehovah himself uses this metaphor, Jer. xxii. 24:—
"Though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
Were as a seal on my right hand,
Yet I would pluck thee thence."
Comp. also Hag. ii. 23; Sirach xvii. 22; Rosenmüller, Orient. vi. 252; i. 183; iv. 190; Wiener, Bib. Dict.; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit. s. v.
