My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

Cluster - Jesus Christ is one, yet manifold in His graces.

Of camphire - or, cypress. The hennah is meant, whose odorous flowers grow in clusters, of a colour white and yellow softly blended: its bark is dark, the foliage light-green. Women deck their persons with them. The loveliness of Jesus Christ.

Vineyards - appropriate in respect to Him who is "the vine." The spikenard was for the banquet (); the myrrh was in her bosom continually (); the camphire is in the midst of natural beauties, which, though lovely, are eclipsed by the one cluster, Jesus Christ, pre-eminent above them all.

En-gedi - in South Palestine, near the Dead Sea, famed for aromatic shrubs.

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