Song of Solomon 4:8

The order of the words in the Heb. is specially, emphatic, With me from Lebanon, O bride, with me from Lebanon do thou come. Evidently a contrast between the speaker and some other is here intended. Come with me, do not remain with him. This strongly supports the view that Solomon is endeavouring to win the maiden's love which has been given to another. Budde, finding the verse quite unintelligible on his hypothesis, excises it, but violence of that kind is not necessary. The Shulammite is at this point in some royal residence in the Lebanon, and her lover calls upon her to leave Solomon and come with him to her home. The reference to lions and leopards may be intended to indicate also her hostile surroundings in other respects. Cp. the Mo-allaqa of Antar, Song of Solomon 5:6, where the loved one among a hostile tribe is said to be "dwelling among the roaring ones," i.e. the lions. Lions formerly inhabited Bashan at least, cp. Deuteronomy 33:22. Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 116, says they lingered in Palestine till the time of the Crusades, and they are mentioned as living about Samaria by historians of the 12th century. Leopards are and always have been common in Palestine. They are a pest to herdsmen in Gilead even now. (Tristram, p. 113.)

look from the top of Amana The verb shûrhas generally in Heb. the meaning -to look round"; but in common with other verbs of looking in a direction, it also means -to go in a direction" (Isaiah 57:9). Occurring as it does in this passage in parallelism with -come," it most probably has the latter meaning. Cp. R.V. marg. We should therefore translate depart from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions" dens, &c. In this way too the lions" dens and the mountains of the leopards gain a significance which they have not if the word be translated look. He warns her to flee from Lebanon as being full of dangers. Ămânâis generally held to be the district in which the river Ămânâh(2 Kings 5:12, Qěrçfor the Kěthîbh, Ăbânâh) rises. This is either the Baradawhich flows from Anti-Libanus, or the other river of Damascus, which flows from the slopes of Hermon. Others, as Budde, think of the Amanus of the ancients, i.e. the spur of the Taurus lying to the north of the Orontes. The former is much the more probable.

Shenir or Senir. Hermon is the highest peak of the Anti-Lebanon range. It is called Sionin Deuteronomy 4:48. By the Amorites it was called Sěnîr, and by the Sidonians Siryôn(Deuteronomy 3:9). It has three peaks, and the names Hermon and Sěnîr, distinguished in 1 Chronicles 5:23; Song of Solomon 4:8, may refer to two of the peaks. Cp. the Hermonsof Psalms 42:6 (Oxf. Lex. p. 356).