(ii.) by signifies eternity (past or future), which is like a sealed book (Rev. v. 1).

(iii.) In deriving y we must take into account its masculine correlative; and this may be done by a physiological application of the root-meaning seal. The words would thus carry with them primarily the negation of development, and would be applicable from the time of infancy to the age of the

,בתולה

, as their upper limits. seal, we may compare,

the beloved is described as

casta et intemerata' (Gesen.

and

For this application of the meaning (Lev. xv. 3); and Cant. iv. 12, where ny, 'fons obsignata, de puella Thesaur. 587 b).

(iv.) The usages of by and by have yet to be consi

עַלְמָה and

dered. The former occurs in 1 Sam. xvii. 56: 'Enquire thou whose son the stripling is.' And in 1 Sam. xx. 22, where it is applied to

.35 .of ch. xx נער קטן the

I

The word is allowed, if not to mean etymologically πapOévos, at least to be used of raplévoi, in all cases except two, viz. Cant. vi. 8 and Prov. xxx. 18-20. But in the former passage

by is contrasted with queens and concubines, and would thus seem to designate such as are in fact raplévo. The latter passage, which is much disputed, runs as follows: There be three things which are too wonderful for me; yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with

Such is the way of an adulterous .(דרך גבר בעלמה) a maid

woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.' Like phraseology is used in Sap. Sol. v. 10, 11, for the purpose of illustration, but the mention of the serpent is omitted, as though unsuited for the application which is made of the passage: nor again are the things in question there described as wonderful and mysterious. But, to return to the passage, the marvel is said to consist in the invisibility of the eagle's track, &c. Why then should

The question is

the eagle be chosen, rather than any other bird? answered by Rosenmüller, who in his answer confounds the want of any mark upon the air with the invisibility of the bird itself. But a ship cannot be said to leave no track; and that especially

a.

All trace no doubt soon vanishes, but less soon in salt-water than in fresh; and thus instead of being emphatic is made meaningless, not to say inaccurate. Nor, supposing these preliminary difficulties surmounted, is it easy to apply them to the final clause, via viri in virgine. The result would be at least disappointing, if the great marvel to which all converges were that the quid vitii sibi hæreat ita dissimulat, ut ab aliis id frustra pervestigatur.' But it is altogether unnatural that the invisibility of a bird's track in the air should be described as an impenetrable mystery; and so with the serpent, and the ship.

The word does not mean xvn or vestigium, but modus agendi. The flight of the eagle challenges especial admiration (Job ix. 26); the ship2 at sea, and the strange convolutions of the footless serpent are likewise chosen as fit types of the marvellous. One and all lead up to that crowning mystery, the infatuation of youthful love, which has arrested the attention of parcemiasts, poets and philosophers in all time. After the mention of the 'four things' comes, in ver. 20, an allusion, suggested by the contrast, to the infatuation of an adulterous woman, who 'saith (sc. in her heart), I have done no wickedness.'

בתולה to the age at which the term

To recapitulate—we have concluded that by (from the root obsignavit) implies a negation of development, and is applicable up or matura becomes applicable. The former word is not used in the Bible of any but raplévo, while the latter may imply, but does not expressly predicate, rapbevía. We proceed to notice

III. These last forms, after the analogy of

denote (a) the age or time of life of the

; and (6) the conditions and natural concomitants of those ages. In Jud. xi. 37, the daughter of Jephthah is spared for awhile to

bewail the devoted capacities of her early womanhood:

deplorabo etatem בתולי

meam virgineam' (Gesen. Thesaur.

1 seems here to mean strictly sea, though it does not necessarily in all contexts. For the whole phrase, cp.

Prov. xxiii. 34.

2 French and Skinner understand nautilus, by 'ship,' in Ps. civ. 26.

205, 6). In Ezek. xxiii. 3, 1, standing in parallelism with

עלומים,denotes the time of incepting maturity. Again נעוריהן

denotes the condition of the y in Job xx. 11, where it stands for the freshness as of extreme youth, in contrast with decay and death; while the are the natural concomitants of the age of the , and their absence therefore implies some defect. Hence

בתולים

means primarily signa pubertatis, and then by implication signa virginitatis (Deut. xxii. 14). We may compare further Is. liv. 4, where, in a description of the barren that did not bear,

the shame of thy youth, stands in parallelism with בשת עלומיך .the reproach of thy widowhood חרפת אלמנותיך

It has been noticed above that there is one Biblical meaning of

by undisputed, viz. occultavit, abscondit. Gesenius adds, that in reliquis linguis cognatis hæc radix non reperitur' (Thesaur. 1035, a). It is noteworthy that the Arabice, to which Gesenius refers, nearly coincides with a meaning of y, to know, while the Hebrew

root

by has a directly opposite meaning. In Job xx. 11

עלומים

is said by some to mean radically strength; and hence it may be seen how easily that meaning might have come to be thought inherent though not really so. Thus, supposing to have meant originally obsignavit, the meanings youth, youthfulness and strength might have been successively derived, and the last may then have been taken as primary in the cognate dialects. But inferences from those dialects are precarious unless corroborated by internal evidence from the more ancient Hebrew.