(12) While the king sitteth.--There is no need to imagine a scene where the monarch, having failed in his attempt to allure the shepherdess by fine offers, retires to his banquet, leaving her to console herself with the thoughts of her absent shepherd love. As in Song of Solomon 1:2 the poet makes his mistress prefer his love to wine, so here she prefers the thought of union with him to all the imagined pleasures of the royal table.

Spikenard--Heb., nerd--is exclusively an Indian product, procured from the Nardostachys jatamansi, a plant of the order Valerianace?. It was imported into Palestine at a very early period. The perfume is prepared by drying the shaggy stem of the plant (see Tristram's Nat. Hist. of Bible, pp. 484, 485). There is a sketch of the plant in Smith's Bibl. Dict.

Verses 12-14. - While the king sat (or, sits) at his table, my spikenard sent (sends) forth its fragrance. My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh, that lieth betwixt my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of Engedi. The preterite is best taken poetically for the present. The words are evidently a response to those of the king. As such they refer to present feeling and not to a past state. The bride expresses her delight in the king. The table is used generally. The Hebrew word is from a root "to sit round." The habit of reclining at table was introduced much later, during the Persian, Greek, and Roman period. The spikenard was a powerful perfume, probably of Indian origin, as the Indian word nalada, meaning "that which yields fragrance," shows. The Persian is nard, the Old Arabic nardu. It was made from an Indian plant, the Valeriana, called Nardo-stachys 'Gatamansi, growing in Northern and Eastern India. The hairy part of the stem immediately above the root yields the perfume. That it was "very precious" we see from the account of Mary's offering, which was worth more than three hundred denarii, i.e. £8 10s. (Mark 14:5; John 12:2). Horace promised Virgil a whole cask, i.e. nine gallons, of the best wine in exchange for a small onyx box full of the perfume. The metaphor represents the intense longing of love. Myrrh was an exotic introduced into Palestine from Arabia, Abyssinia, and India. Like frankincense, it is one of the amyridae. The Balsamodendron myrrha is the tree itself with its leaves and flowers. From the tree came a resin or gum (Gummi myrrhae), which either dropped from the leaves or was artificially obtained by incisions in the bark. The natural product was the more valuable. It was much prized as a perfume, and employed for many purposes. The Hebrew women were accustomed to carry little bags or bottles of myrrh suspended from their necks and hanging down between the breasts under the dress, diffusing an attractive fragrance round them. The word tseror is, properly, "a little bag," sacculus, "that which one ties up," rather than a "bundle." The meaning, of course, is rhetorical - He is at my heart and delightful to all my thoughts as the fragrance to my senses. The henna flowers, or cypress, in the vineyards of Engedi, is a very beautiful figure. Copher, the cypress cluster, - in Greek, κύπρος: in Arabic, al-henna (Lawsonia) - grows in Palestine and Egypt, as we are told by Pliny ('Nat. Hist.' 12:24). It is a tall shrub reaching to eight or ten feet, exceedingly beautiful in appearance, and giving forth a delightful odour. It is named from a root "to be white or yellow-white." The Moslem women stain their hands and feet with it to give them a yellow tint. Engedi was a lovely district on the west of the Dead Sea - Hazezon Tamar, now Ain Tidy, where Solomon made terraces on the hillsides and covered them with gardens and vineyards. The allusion confirms the date of the writing as contemporary with Solomon, as the gardens would then be in their perfection. The figure is, perhaps, intended to be an advance in rhetorical force upon that which preceded - the fragrance diffused and almost overpowering, as of a blossoming tree.

Parallel Commentaries ...


While
עַד־ (‘aḏ-)
Preposition
Strong's 5704: As far as, even to, up to, until, while

the king
שֶׁ֤הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ (še·ham·me·leḵ)
Pronoun - relative, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4428: A king

was at his table,
בִּמְסִבּ֔וֹ (bim·sib·bōw)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 4524: That which surrounds or is round

my perfume
נִרְדִּ֖י (nir·dî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 5373: Nard, an aromatic

spread
נָתַ֥ן (nā·ṯan)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

its fragrance.
רֵיחֽוֹ׃ (rê·ḥōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 7381: To smell, perceive odor


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OT Poetry: Song of Solomon 1:12 While the king sat at his table (Song Songs SS So Can)