Verse 4
4. Put in his hand The Land and the Book tells us that Eastern house-doors usually lock from within only, and a hole in the doorframe is left by which one can reach the keyhole from without. The Beloved will not enter unbidden, from a sense of true delicacy.
By the hole Hebrew, From the hole; that is, to withdraw the bolt. It is simply astonishing that this language, so expressive of modesty, the more beautiful because found in humble life, has ever been thought to have a character directly opposite. My bowels, etc. The Hebrew word signifies the upper viscera, and chiefly the heart. It means, figuratively, the sympathies, the anxieties. As soon as the Beloved had departed, her disquiet began.
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