[(Exod. 27:20:) AND YOU SHALL COMMAND….] This text is related (to Cant. 7:6 [5]): YOUR HEAD UPON YOU IS LIKE CARMEL, AND THE LOCKS (dallah) OF YOUR HEAD (rosh) ARE LIKE PURPLE. The poor (dallim) and the needy (rashim) who are among you are as dear to me as Daniel.⁸., Exod. 8:6; Lev. R. 31:4; Cant. R. 7:6:1, all of which cite Dan. 5:29: AND THEY CLOTHED DANIEL IN PURPLE. [(Ibid., cont.:) A KING IS CAPTIVATED BY THE TRESSES (rehatim).] The Holy One, as it were, said to them: I am bound by an oath⁹, Cant., 992. to be among you. By virtue of what? By virtue of the races that Abraham ran for me, as stated (in Gen. 18:6–7): ABRAHAM HASTENED TO THE TENT … THEN ABRAHAM RAN UNTO THE HERD.¹⁰. (Buber), Gen. 4:5, and the note there. Ergo (in Cant. 7:6 [5]): A KING IS CAPTIVATED BY THE TRESSES (rehatim).¹¹ (i.e., RHT) can mean “run.” R. Levi said: By virtue of Jacob, of whom it is written (in Gen. 30:38): AND HE SET UP THE RODS WHICH HE HAD PEELED IN THE TROUGHS (rehatim), IN THE WATER RECEPTACLES.

footnotes: ⁸ See Tanh ⁹ The added words appear in all the parallel versions except Yalqut Shim’oni ¹⁰ On the three races of Abraham, see above, Tanh ¹¹ The root of rehatim

Another interpretation (of Cant. 7:6 [5]): A KING IS CAPTIVATED BY THE TRESSES (rehatim). The Holy One said to Moses: Moses, I have made you a king. Just as the king issues decrees, and they act; so you issue decrees¹², but this reading is probably a misreading of GWZR due to metathesis. The reading, gwzr, which is the one translated here, is found in the parallel text of Tanh., Exod. 8:6. over them, and they shall act. (Exod. 27:20:) AND YOU SHALL COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL….

footnotes: ¹² The Buber text reads GZWR