Song of Solomon 1:13

The verses before this one are full of longing. The Shulamite asks for the king’s love and to be drawn into his chambers (Song of Solomon 1:2–4). Here she is in his presence, and the longing has become nearness. The king, melek, from the verb meaning to reign, is a sovereign who rules, and the title gives the man she loves his honour and dignity. The Song names him as Solomon, and he is traditionally taken to be the king here.

He “sitteth at his table”. The word for table, mêçab, comes from a root meaning to surround, and it describes a couch or divan for reclining at a meal. In Israel feasts and banquets were great occasions, and guests often reclined on couches around a low table. The picture is of the king at ease among those close to him, and of the Shulamite near enough for her perfume to reach him.

Spikenard, nêrd, is a word that came into Hebrew from abroad, as the perfume itself did. It names nard, a strongly scented and very expensive perfume made from a plant that grew in distant lands such as the Himalayas. Perfumes like it were prized luxuries in Israel, used for anointing, for perfuming, in religious rites, and as a mark of wealth and honour. When she says “my spikenard”, she means the most precious thing she owns, and she brings it where the king is.

The verb “sendeth forth” is nâthan, the everyday word “to give”. It is used with very wide latitude, for putting, setting and making, and also for things that yield what is in them, as a plant shoots forth or an animal bears young. Here the nard gives its smell. That word, rêyach, means an odour, scent or aroma, and Strong’s ties it to a root about blowing or breathing. The perfume does what nard does, and its sweetness fills the place where the king sits. Her love is like that: costly, given to him, and enjoyed by him.

The New Testament tells of costly spikenard poured out once more at a meal. Mary of Bethany anointed the feet of Jesus with very costly spikenard, a gift of lavish love and worship that Jesus said looked ahead to his burial (John 12:3–8). In both places the best a woman had was given freely to the one she loved and honoured.

In verse 13 the Shulamite speaks of the man himself. “A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me.” The word for bundle, tsᵉrôwr, means something packed up, a parcel or bag, and the same word can name a small grain or a pebble. She pictures a small pouch of myrrh, little in size and great in worth.

Myrrh, môr, is a fragrant gum or resin taken from a thorny tree, Commiphora myrrha. Strong’s links the name to a root that speaks both of oozing out in drops and of bitterness. It was one of the most valuable spices of Solomon’s day, and Scripture shows its many uses. It went into the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:23), it was part of the purifying with oil of myrrh before the young women of Esther’s day came to the king (Esther 2:12), and Nicodemus brought it for the burial of Jesus (John 19:39). It was used in perfumes and medicines as well. In this verse the myrrh speaks of sweetness and great value, and the Shulamite is saying that her beloved is to her what such a treasure is to its owner.

The word dôwd means beloved or love, and it can also mean a lover or friend, or an uncle. Throughout the Song it is the word for the man, and it carries all the warmth of a pet name. The same word comes back in verse 14 as “My beloved”. In both verses she adds “unto me”. Whatever he is to others, this is what he is to her, and she says it with the joy of someone whose love belongs to one person.

The verb lûwn means to stop for the night or to lodge, and from there to stay, remain and abide. In other places, in a bad sense, it is used for grumbling and murmuring. Here it has its plain sense of staying through the night. Shad is the woman’s breast, and the place she names is the closest place she has, where a mother holds a cherished child or a woman keeps a little bag of perfume next to her heart. She longs for her beloved to be that close, and to stay. “All night” tells of a love that wants unbroken nearness, the kind of lasting bond the Song praises later as strong as death and unquenchable by many waters (Song of Solomon 8:6–7).

The Song is first of all a celebration of the love between a man and a woman, and these verses are meant to be read in that plain sense. Their frank delight is part of God’s good design for marriage, and it gives husbands and wives a sound and healthy foundation for their love and their life together. Throughout the Song the two lovers praise each other (Song of Solomon 4:7) and belong to each other: “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song of Solomon 2:16).

For centuries God’s people have also heard in the Song the covenant love of God for Israel and the love between Christ and his church. Scripture gives us reason to, because Paul, writing about husband and wife, says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32). The plain meaning stays the foundation, and the picture of Christ is built on it.

In verse 14 she reaches for one more fragrance. “Camphire” is the KJV’s word for henna, kôpher, the plant Lawsonia inermis. Henna was highly prized for its strongly scented white blossoms, which grow in clusters, and for its leaves, which give a reddish-orange dye used for cosmetics, decorating the body and colouring hair. A word spelled the same way most often means a ransom or a bribe, the price paid for a life, and elsewhere a village or pitch. The lexicons treat henna, pitch and village as separate words that happen to share that spelling, so here kôpher means the plant and its flowers. “A cluster” of them is a full spray of blossom, rich in colour and scent.

ʻÊyn Gedîy, Engedi, means “fountain of a kid”. It was an oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea, famous for its fresh springs, lush growth, date palms and vineyards, and for fragrant plants such as balsam and henna. All around it the land is dry and barren, which made its green gardens all the more striking. To say “in the vineyards of Engedi” is to name the best place a henna cluster could grow, and so the finest cluster there could be. That is how her beloved looks to her: beautiful, sweet, and rare.

The Song speaks of love in the language of plants and gardens again and again. There are the words “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” (Song of Solomon 2:1), the bride described as an orchard of pleasant fruits and spices (Song of Solomon 4:13), and the invitation for the beloved to come into his garden (Song of Solomon 4:16). Proverbs uses the same warmth when it tells a husband to rejoice with the wife of his youth and be ravished always with her love (Proverbs 5:18–19). Psalm 45, a song for a royal wedding, says of the king, “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia” (Psalm 45:8).