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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Song of Solomon 4:10 - 4:10
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He proceeds still further to praise her attractions.
10 How fair is thy love, my sister-bride!
How much better thy love than wine!
And the fragrance of thy unguents than all spices!
11 Thy lips drop honey, my bride;
Honey and milk are under thy tongue;
And the fragrance of thy garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
Regarding the connection of the pluralet. דּוֹדִים with the plur. of the pred., vid., at Son 1:2. The pred. יָפוּ praises her love in its manifestations according to its impression on the sight; טֹבוּ, according to its experience on nearer intercourse. As in Son 4:9 the same power of impression is attributed to the eyes and to the necklace, so here is intermingled praise of the beauty of her person with praise of the fragrance, the odour of the clothing of the bride; for her soul speaks out not only by her lips, she breathes forth odours also for him in her spices, which he deems more fragrant than all other odours, because he inhales, as it were, her soul along with them. נֹפֶת, from נָפַת, ebullire (vid., under Pro 5:3, also Schultens), is virgin honey, ἄκοιτον (acetum, Pliny, xi. 15), i.e., that which of itself flows from the combs (צוּפִים). Honey drops from the lips which he kisses; milk and honey are under the tongue which whispers to him words of pure and inward joy; cf. the contrary, Psa 140:4. The last line is an echo of Gen 27:27. שַׂלְמָה is שִׂמְלָה (from שָׂמַל, complicare, complecti) transposed (cf. עַלְנָה from עַוְלָה, כַּשְׂבָּה from כַּבְשָׂה). As Jacob's raiment had for his old father the fragrance of a field which God had blessed, so for Solomon the garments of the faultless and pure one, fresh from the woods and mountains of the north, gave forth a heart-strengthening savour like the fragrance of Lebanon (Hos 4:7), viz., of its fragrant herbs and trees, chiefly of the balsamic odour of the apples of the cedar.