otes]: _and above it two
round hills like breasts, at no great distance from each other_. To such as
these Solomon alludes, when he makes his beloved say, [287]_I am a wall,
and my breasts like towers_. Though the word [Hebrew: CHWMH], Chumah, or
Comah, be generally rendered a wall; yet I should think that in this place
it signified the ground which the wall surrounded: an inclosure sacred to
Cham, the Sun, who was particularly worshipped in such places. The Mizraim
called these hills Typhon, and the cities where they were erected,
Typhonian. But as they stood within inclosures sacred to Chom, they were
also styled Choma. This, I imagine, was the meaning of the term in this
place, and in some others; where the text alludes to a different nation,
and to a foreign mode of worship. In these temples the Sun was principally
adored, and the rites of fire celebrated: and this seems to have been the
reason why the judgment denounced against them is uniformly, that they
shall be destroyed by fire. If we suppose Comah to mean a mere wall, I do
not see why fire should be so particularly destined against a part, which
is the least combustible. The Deity says, [288]_I will kindle a fire in the
wall of Damascus. [289]I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza. [290]I will
send a fire on the wall of Tyrus. [291]I will kindle a [292]fire in the
wall of Rabbah_. As the crime which brought down this curse was idolatry,
and the term used in all these instances is Chomah; I should think that it
related to a temple of Chom, and his high places, called by the Greeks
[Greek: lophoi mastoeideis]: and to these the spouse of Solomon certainly
alludes, when she Says, [Greek: ego teichos, kai hoi mastoi mou hos
purgoi]. This will appear from another passage in Solomon, where he makes
his beloved say, [293]_We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts. If
she be a Comah, we will build upon her a palace of silver._ A palace cannot
be supposed to be built upon a wall; though it may be inclosed with one.
The place for building was a Comah, or eminence. It is said of Jotham, king
of Judah, that [294]_on the wall of Ophel he built much_. Ophel is
literally Pytho Sol, the Ophite Deity of Egypt and Canaan. What is here
termed a wall, was a Comah, or high place, which had been of old erected to
the sun by the Jebusites. This Jotham fortified, and turned it to
advantage; whereas before it was not used, or used for a bad purpose. The
ground set apart for such u