Verse 3
3. Sent forth her maidens נערתיה , her young women. Wisdom being personified as a woman, a queen, it is fitting that her attendants should also be women.
She crieth That is, by her maidens. Hasselquist says, that at Alexandria (Egypt) he saw, on one occasion, ten or twelve women going about the city inviting people to a banquet by a peculiar cry or noise. The office of announcing and celebrating glad tidings among the Hebrews, says Bishop Lowth, belonged peculiarly to the women. On occasion of any great victory or other joyful event, the women went forth with music song, and dance, to celebrate the occurrence. So did Miriam and “all the women,” after the passage of the Red Sea. Exodus 15:20-21. So Jephthah’s daughter. Judges 11:34. So, after David’s victory over Goliath, it is said “that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music; and the women answered one another as they played, [in alternate chorus:]
“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.”
In Psalms 68:11, the word rendered “those publishing it,” המבשׂרות , ( hambhasseroth,) is a feminine plural participle, and might be translated, female heralds of good news. The same word in the singular is also used.
Isaiah 40:9, is rendered by Lowth, “O daughter, that bringest glad tidings.” All these passages recognise the fact that to women belonged, by custom, the proclamation of joyful news. To women, also, was it first given to proclaim the gospel of the resurrection. Luke 24:1, seq.; John 20:17-18.
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