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Song of Songs 6:9b-10 presents the women of the royal court catching sight of the new bride before the wedding, and being so impressed that they declare her praise and blessedness with the following words (verse 10):
מִי זֹאת הַנִּשְׁקָפָה כְּמוֹ שָׁחַר יָפָה כַלְּבָנָה בָּרָה כַּחַמָּה אֲיֻמָּה כַּנִּדְגָּלוֹת
A word-by-word translation would be something like
Who now [or this (fem.)] the-gazing-down [fem. partic.] like the-morning, beautiful as-the-moon, pure as-the-Sun, awesome as-the-bannered-ones?
So they express their admiration in the form of a question that starts with "מִי זֹאת", which I guess carries the force of something like
Now look where I’m looking so that I can ask you about the identity of … (not necessarily as a literal request for you to tell me the person’s name, but more rhetorically as a way of expressing my curious wonder at this person).
My question is: Should the rest of the sentence (starting from "… הַנִּשְׁקָפָה") be grammatically understood more in the sense of a "nonrestrictive clause" or more in the sense of a "restrictive clause"? (Note the definite article here, which does not occur at similar places elsewhere, e.g. 3:6.)
To clarify, let me describe what I picture as being the approximate sense of this verse under the two interpretations of the grammar. [I use double parallel lines || … || just to help separate out grammatical components of the complex sentences below, hopefully to slightly smoothen the ease of reading.]
Under the "nonrestrictive clause" interpretation, the sense of the words is something like
Look where I’m looking, so that I can express to you my curious wonder ||at the person who will be within your field of focus when you look where I’m looking|| arising from the wonderfulness of this person’s morning-like downward gaze, moon-like beauty, Sun-like purity, and starry-host-like awesomeness.
(A crude translation might be "Lo who is this, who gazes down…")
Under the "restrictive clause" interpretation, the sense of the words is something like
Look where I’m looking, so that I can express to you my curious wonder at the person who can be identified ||from within what your field of focus will be when you look where I’m looking|| by the characteristic of her having a morning-like downward gaze, moon-like beauty, Sun-like purity, and starry-host-like awesomeness.
(A crude translation might be "Lo, who’s the woman gazing down…")
I ask because, to me, the latter feels more poetic. (But I’m a modern Western reader, so perhaps that does not mean much.)
