Notes
Song of Solomon 7:13. The mandrakes give a smell.
‘Mandrakes.’ הַדּוּדָיִם ha-dudhaim; plural of דוּדַי a love-apple, from דּוּד to love. So GESENIUS and others. ‘A mandragora (Atropa mandragora, Linnœus); a plant with large leaves, like the beet; its root like that of a turnip, divided in the lower part, and somewhat resembling the human form; employed in preparing love philtres, as having a soporific power, and thought to possess a virtue in matters of love, which is still ascribed to it in the East.’ A wild plant common in Palestine, especially in Galilee; of the same genus as the Belladonna, with small whitish blossoms, which, in May or June, become small yellow apples, with a strong and disagreeable odour; very early regarded as an artificial provocative of sensual love, not only in the East, but also by the Greeks and Romans, and still called by the Arabs tuffâh esh-shaitan, or Satan’s apples. ZÖCKLER, EWALD. According to others, a particular kind of melon called in the east, from its shape, chamama, or Woman’s breast, corresponding to the Hebrew name in the text. So CALMET and FRY. TAYLOR. Some lovely fruit or flower. DE WETTE. Some beautiful sweet—smelling plant. COBBIN. A kind of highly-flavoured melon. Some read דּוּרָאִים dudhaim, ‘baskets’ (as Jeremiah 24:1). So HAHN: Baskets full of all kinds of precious fruits. According to to the Talmudists: Violets or lilies. RASHI. The Jasmine. TARGUM. The Balsam. SEPTUAGINT and VULGATE Maudragora. LUTHER. Lilies. According to others, as Ludolf and Simon, the Indian Fig. Patrick and others needlessly object to the man drake, as having an offensive smell. ‘Give a smell,’—give forth their odour; therefore referring to the fruit, not the blossoms, nor the plant; and so looking forward to a more advanced season than in Song of Solomon 7:13, the fruit not being ripe till the wheat harvest’ (Genesis 30:14. ZÖCKLER.