Chapter 7 Verse 1. Verse 2. Verse 3. Verse 4.
CHAPTER 7
Verse 1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, &c.] Solomon said, by the spirit of prophecy from the Lord, How beautiful are the feet of the Israelites, when they come up to appear before the Lord {a} three times a year, in sandals of badger skin, and offer up their vows and free-will offerings; and their sons which come out of their loins are fair as the gems which were fixed upon the holy {b} crown that Bezaleel the artificer made for Aaron the priest.
Verse 2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, &c.] And the head of thy school, by whose righteousness all the world is nourished, even as the fetus receives its nourishment through its navel, in its mother’s bowels; who shines in the law as the orb of the moon, when he comes to pronounce pure or unclean, to justify or condemn; neither do the words of the law ever fail from his mouth, even as the waters of the great river, which proceeds from Eden, never {c} fail; and the seventy wise men are round about him, as a round {d} floor, whose treasures are full of the holy tithes, and vows, and free-will offerings which Ezra the priest, and Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and Nehemiah, and Mordecai Bilshan, men of the great {e} congregation who are like to roses, decreed for them, because they had strength to study in the law day and night.
Verse 3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes, &c.] Thy {f} two Redeemers which shall redeem thee, Messiah, the son of David, and Messiah, the son of Ephraim, are like to Moses and Aaron, the sons of Jochebed, who may be compared to two young roes that are twins. Verse 4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory, &c.] And {g} the father of the house of judgment, who determines thy causes, is mighty over thy people to bind them, and to bring him forth who is condemned in judgment, even to bring him forth, as Solomon the king, who made a tower of ivory, and subjected the people of the house of Israel, and returned them to the Lord of the world. Thy scribes are full of wisdom, as pools of water; and they know how to number the computations of the {h} intercalations; and they intercalate the years, and fix the beginning of the months and the beginning of the years at the gate of the house of the great sanhedrin, and the chief of the house of Judah is like to David the king, who built the fortress of Zion, which is called the tower of Lebanon, on which, whoever stands, may number {i} all the towers that are in Damascus.
Verse 5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, &c.] The king who is set over thee, a righteous head, is as {k} Elijah the prophet, who was jealous with a jealousy for the Lord of heaven, and slew the false prophets in the mount of Carmel, and reduced the people of the house of Israel to the fear of the Lord God; and the poor of the people, which go with a bowed-down head because they are poor, shall be clothed in purple, as Daniel was clothed in the city of Babylon, and Mordecai in Shushan, because of the righteousness of Abraham, who long before consulted the Lord of the world; and because of Isaac, whom his father bound in order to offer him up, and because of the holiness of Jacob, who pilled the rods in the gutters. Verse 6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, &c.] King Solomon said, How beautiful art thou, O congregation of Israel, when thou bearest upon thee the yoke of my kingdom, when I correct thee with chastisements for thy transgressions, and thou bearest them in love, and they appear in thy sight as delicious dainties.
Verse 7. This thy stature is like to a palm tree, &c.] And when thy priests {l} spread their hands in prayer, and bless their brethren, the house of Israel, their four hands are separated like the branches of the palm tree, and their stature is as the date; and thy congregations stand face to face over against the priests, and their faces are bowed to the earth like a cluster of grapes.
Verse 8. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, &c.] The Lord said by his word, I will go and try Daniel, and see whether he is able to stand in one temptation as Abraham his father who is like to a palm tree branch, stood in {m} ten temptations; yea, I will also try Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whether they are able to stand in their temptations; for the sake of whose righteousness I will redeem the people of the house of Israel, who are like to clusters of grapes; and the fame of Daniel, Hananiah Mishael, and Azariah, shall be heard in all the earth; and their smell shall be excellent, like the smell of the apples of the garden of Eden.
Verse 9. And the roof of thy mouth is like the best wine, &c.] Daniel and his companions said, We will surely take upon us the decree of the word of the Lord, as Abraham our father, who may be compared to old wine, took it upon him; and we will walk in the way which is right before him, even as Elijah and Elisha the prophets walked, through whose righteousness the dead, which are like to a man asleep, were raised; and as