Song of Solomon 7:3

A poem that praises the beloved one part at a time is often called a wasf, a descriptive poem, and this one runs through Song of Solomon 7:1–9. It comes after the scene in the garden in Song of Solomon 6:11–12, and it climbs steadily upward: her feet and thighs (verse 1), her navel and belly (verse 2), her breasts (verse 3), her neck, eyes and nose (verse 4), and at last her head and hair (verse 5). When he has finished, she answers with an invitation of her own to go out together into the fields (Song of Solomon 7:10–13).

The speaker has long been identified as King Solomon, and in verse 5 he speaks of “the king”. He has praised her like this before, in Song of Solomon 4:1–7. This later song is fuller and more intimate, the praise of a love that has grown more settled and secure.

The admiration runs both ways in the Song. He calls her fair in Song of Solomon 1:15, and she praises him part by part in Song of Solomon 5:10–16. She says, “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song of Solomon 2:16), and again, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3). The love these verses celebrate is mutual, exclusive and glad.

“How beautiful are thy feet with shoes” opens the song with a cry of wonder. The verb yâphâh means to be bright, and so to be beautiful or fair. He begins at her sandalled feet, which speak of grace in her walk, perhaps of her dancing, and of dignity too, since fine shoes marked a person of standing.

He calls her “O prince’s daughter”, nâdîyb bath. The word nâdîyb properly means willing or generous, and from there noble, a prince. The word bath, daughter, comes from bânâh, to build, as the feminine of bên, son, and it is used in the same wide way as other words of family. Together they give her a title of nobility. Whatever her birth, to him she carries herself like royalty, and he honours her worth before he says a word about her body.

“The joints of thy thighs” translates chammûwq, which the KJV renders “joints” and which means the curve or curving of the thighs. He likens these curves to jewels, chălîy, ornaments prized because they are rare, bright and finely shaped. The jewels in turn are “the work of the hands of a cunning workman”. An ʼâmân is an expert, a master craftsman, a word that comes from a root used in the sense of training. Israel knew such skill as a gift from God, for the LORD filled Bezalel with his Spirit to work in gold, silver and stone for the tabernacle (Exodus 31:1–5).

The craftsman belongs to the picture of the jewels, and behind every fine work stands its maker. The Maker of her body is God, who made man male and female in his own image (Genesis 1:27). David praised him for the same careful work in his own body: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13–14). The husband’s delight in her form is delight in the Creator’s handiwork.

The navel, shôrer, is the word for the navel or the umbilical cord, and it can stand for the lower body more broadly. He likens it to “a round goblet”. The word for round is çahar, and the goblet, ʼaggân, is a bowl or basin, from a root probably meaning something pounded out hollow. This bowl “wanteth not liquor”. The verb châçêr means to lack or fail, and the liquor is mezeg, mixed or spiced wine. Saying that it never lacks wine is a gentle understatement for a bowl that is always full. Goblets of wine belonged to feasts, so the picture is one of joy, celebration and satisfaction that does not run out.

Her belly, beṭen, is the belly and especially the womb. He likens it to “an heap of wheat”, using ʻârêm, a heap, and chiṭṭâh, wheat, the grain or the plant. Wheat was Israel’s staple crop, the bread of every home, and a heap of it on the threshing floor meant a good harvest and food for the year. The heap is “set about with lilies”. The verb çûwg means to hedge or fence about, and the lilies, shûwshan, were admired for their delicate beauty. So the sturdy picture of the harvest is ringed with grace.

In Israel the belly and the womb were bound up with life and fruitfulness, and a well-rounded figure spoke of health and of the hope of children. These are high compliments. God’s first blessing on man and woman was “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), and children are a heritage from the LORD (Psalm 127:3). The full bowl and the heap of wheat also speak of the richness of the marriage itself, where a husband finds lasting gladness in his wife. Proverbs tells a man to “rejoice with the wife of thy youth” (Proverbs 5:18–19).

“Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.” The word for breasts is shad, the breast of a woman or animal, named for its rounded form. The roe, tsᵉbîyâh, is a female gazelle. Gazelles were loved in Israel for their elegance, swiftness and grace. The word tâʼôwm, twins, comes from a root meaning to be double or paired. Two young twin gazelles are perfectly matched, soft, lively and lovely, and the picture tells of youth, grace and balance.

He has used this very picture before, in Song of Solomon 4:5. The repeated praise shows that his delight in her is steady and lasting.

“Thy neck is as a tower of ivory.” A migdâl is a tower, from a root meaning to be great, and towers were often built for defence or for keeping watch. Ivory was a rare and valuable luxury brought from abroad, smooth and pale. A tower of ivory gives a neck that is tall, graceful and smooth, carried with dignity, and precious as well.

“Thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim.” The word for eye, ʻayin, also means a spring or fountain, the eye of the landscape, and the pools fit it well. Heshbon was an ancient city east of the Jordan, known for its waters and its pools. Bathrabbim means “daughter of multitudes”, and it was most likely a busy, well-known gate of the city. Her eyes are clear, deep and still, like water that draws the gaze and refreshes it. A pool beside a crowded gate is also something everyone passing would see and admire.

“Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.” The word ʼaph means the nose or nostril, and it can also stand for the whole face, and for anger, from the hard breathing of a man stirred up. Here it is the nose itself. Lebanon was famous for its great cedars, and Damascus was an important city to the north-east. A tower in Lebanon facing Damascus is high, firm and watchful, and it gives her face a noble, distinctive profile, full of presence.

“Thine head upon thee is like Carmel.” Karmel is the name of a mountain and of a town, and it means a fruitful or plentiful field. Mount Carmel was celebrated for its forests, its fertile slopes and its height. So her head rises above the rest of her like Carmel above the land, lofty, rich and splendid, the crown of all the praise that came before it.

“And the hair of thine head like purple.” The word for hair, dallâh, properly means something dangling, a loose thread or hair, and in other places it is used of the poor. Here it is her flowing hair. Purple dye was costly and rare, made from murex snails, and it was worn by kings and the wealthy. It was also used in the tabernacle of God (Exodus 25:4). Hair like purple is rich, precious and fit for a queen.

“The king is held in the galleries.” The verb ʼâçar means to tie, bind or harness, and it is used of prisoners put in bonds. The king, who rules others, is the one who is bound. Her beauty has taken him captive, and he says so gladly. He told her the same thing earlier in the Song: “Thou hast ravished my heart” (Song of Solomon 4:9).

People ask whether verses like these make a woman into an object. The praise here is personal, affectionate and full of honour. He calls her a prince’s daughter before he describes her, he sees her beauty as the work of a master’s hands, and he ends by owning that she has captured him. She speaks of him in the same way, and each belongs to the other. This is the gaze of a husband who loves his wife as a whole person, body and all.

The Song stands with the rest of Scripture in calling the body good and married love holy. A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Marriage is honourable in all, and the marriage bed is undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). The body of a believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price, so that we glorify God in it (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). The Song also tells us how strong such love is: love is strong as death, and many waters cannot quench it (Song of Solomon 8:6–7). In these verses physical delight and faithful love belong together, within the covenant of marriage, and God is glad to give both.

Believers differ on how to read the Song as a whole. Some hold that its first meaning is the love of a husband and wife, celebrated without shame, and that this love itself points beyond itself to Christ. Others read it as a picture of the LORD’s covenant love for Israel, or of Christ’s love for his church, and find that meaning in every line. On both readings the love of the bridegroom for the bride leads us to Christ, who “loved the church, and gave himself for it” so that he might present it to himself holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25–27).

Read in that light, the king’s delight in the Shulamite shows the delight Christ has in his people. John the Baptist called Jesus the bridegroom who has the bride (John 3:29). The church will be clothed in fine linen at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7–9), and the new Jerusalem comes down “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). A psalm of the royal wedding says, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty” (Psalm 45:11). The beauty Christ loves in his church is beauty he has given her himself.

The pictures of these verses carry over in the same way. The bowl that never lacks wine brings to mind Christ, whose living water becomes in us “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14), and who calls the thirsty to come to him and drink (John 7:37–38). The heap of wheat brings to mind the one who said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), and the fruit his people bear by abiding in him (John 15:5). Towers recall the name of the LORD, which is “a strong tower” (Proverbs 18:10). Her royal purple recalls a people called “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and her lofty head the church’s union with Christ, who is its head (Ephesians 5:23). And the king held captive by his bride’s beauty gives us a glimpse of a love so great that Christ gave himself for her.

These verses give us a husband who looks at his wife with wonder and finds words worthy of her, from her feet to her hair. They show that God made the body with a craftsman’s care, that he gave married love its joy, and that delight between husband and wife is part of his good design. The praise is specific, generous and honouring, and it ends in glad surrender: “the king is held”. Behind it stands a greater Bridegroom, whose love for his people is deeper still, and who makes his bride beautiful and rejoices over her.