1 A further description of the church’s graces. 10 The church professes her faith and desire.
Son 7:1 How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist’s hands.
How beautiful. Verses 1–5 are a laudation, probably by the ladies who are looking on, although many consider that the words are spoken by Solomon. Like jewels. The emphasis is probably on the jewels that she now wears.
Son 7:2 Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies.
Son 7:3 Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle.
Like two young fawns. Compare ch. 4:5.
Son 7:4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus.
Ivory tower. Compare ch. 4:4.
Pools of Heshbon is generally identified with Tell Hesbân, about 24 km. east of the Jordan. This site has yielded no evidence from Moses’ time but has well attested remains from the period of the judges and of the monarchy, including portions of a large open-air water reservoir.
Bath-rabbim. Literally, “daughter of multitudes.” Doubtedless the name of one of the gates.
Son 7:5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses.
Son 7:6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing, my love, with your delights!
Son 7:7 Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
The tall and graceful palm tree was an appropriate figure for female beauty. The name Tamar was borne by several women (Gen. 38:6; 2 Sam. 13:1).
Son 7:8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,
Son 7:9 and your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my beloved, flowing gently over lips and teeth.
Son 7:10 I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.
A refrain (see chs. 2:16; 6:3) ending the section extolling the bride’s beauty.
The Bride Gives Her Love
Son 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.
In this section the bride expresses her longing for her home in Lebanon. She may be imagined as begging her husband to take her back to her own old home, with promises of a renewed love for him.
Son 7:12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom— there I will give you my love.
Son 7:13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Mandrakes. By popular etymology, “love apples.” They were supposed to excite erotic desire and favor procreation (see Gen. 30:14–16).