Return, return - About to withdraw, the bride is recalled by the chorus, desiring yet a little longer to contemplate a grace and beauty which has won all hearts.
Shulamite - Probably the same as “Shunamite,” i. e., a native of the town or district of Shunem, situated in the territory of Issachar Joshua 19:18, on the slopes of the Little Hermon, overlooking the plain of Jezreel. It is now called Salem.
See - Look or gaze at. The bride’s modest reply, taking up their words, and wondering at their request. The chorus answer with a further petition.
As it were the company of two armies - Or, rather, the dance of Mahanaim (see the margin), a well-known sacred dance, taking its name from the locality in which it originated Genesis 32:2; Joshua 21:38. Some, taking “Mahanaim” to be an ordinary designation for “the Angels” or “Angelic Hosts,” render here “a dance as it were of angel-choirs,” i. e., one of special grace and beauty. The former of these interpretations is to be preferred.