Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 1:7

"Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest [thy flock], Where thou makest [it] to rest at noon: For why should I be as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?" — Song Of Solomon 1:7 (ASV)

Where you feed ... your flock ... For why should I be ... ?—The marginal reading, that is veiled, follows the Septuagint in rendering the Hebrew literally.

But it has been found somewhat difficult to assign a meaning to a literal translation. The suggestions, unknown (Ewald), veiled as a harlot (Delitzsch, etc., compare Genesis 38:15), fainting (Gesenius), seem all wide of the mark, since the question only refers to the danger of missing her beloved through ignorance of his whereabouts.

A transposition of two letters would give a word with the required sense: erring, wandering about, a sense, indeed, which old Rabbinical commentators gave to this word itself in Isaiah 22:16 (Authorized Version, cover). Probably, the idea involved is the obvious one that a person with the head muffled up would not find her way easily, as we might say, “Why should I go about blindfold?”

The Rabbinical interpretation of this verse is a good instance of the fanciful treatment the book has received: “When the time came for Moses to depart, he said to the Lord, ‘It is revealed to me that this people will sin and go into captivity; show me how they shall be governed and dwell among the nations whose decrees are oppressive as the heat; and why is it they shall wander among the flocks of Esau and Ishmael, who make them idols equal to you as your companions?’”