Our attention now turns from the public procession that took place on the wedding day to the private union that followed that night.
His bride's beauty ravished Solomon. His praise in verses 1 and 7 frames his description of her in verses 1-6.
4:1 Women in Solomon's culture did not always wear a veil. Before their wedding they put one on and did not take it off until the wedding night (cf. Gen. 24:65; 29:19-25). From a distance a flock of black goats descending from the mountains at dusk was very attractive and reminded Solomon of his beloved's long black locks rippling and tumbling freely.
4:2-3 Her teeth were white and evenly matched. Her mouth had a beautiful color and shape. Her temples were rosy with robust health, like the outside of a pomegranate.64
4:4 A long neck, which gives a stately appearance, may have been a mark of beauty in the ancient world.65On the other hand, this may be a figurative description designed to compliment. It was customary for soldiers to hang their shields on the towers belonging to the lords to whom they pledged allegiance.66What tower of David this was we do not know. It was not David's citadel that now stands on the west side of old Jerusalem because that tower did not exist at this time. The idea is that many of the best people loved and stood by the bride. She enjoyed popular acceptance by Solomon's subjects.
4:5-6 Fawns are soft and lovable. The "mountain"and "hill"are also metaphors for the girl's breasts. Myrrh and frankincense were expensive perfumes, so Solomon may have meant his wife's breasts were precious to him as well as attractive.
4:7 Perhaps she was not really as perfect as Solomon claimed here (cf. 1:5-6). "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."She was perfect to him.
Probably Solomon drew comparisons between his bride and things common in pastoral settings because rural life was her background and was dominant in Israel. She would have understood his meaning easily.
Solomon appealed to his bride to put all thoughts of her former life away. These included both the pleasant thoughts, such as those of the beautiful mountains of the Anti-Lebanon and Hermon ranges in Lebanon from which she had come, and fearful thoughts, such as those of wild animals. He urged her to give him her attention on this their wedding night.
In these verses Solomon evidently praised his bride for giving herself wholly to him as he had asked.
4:9 "Sister"was evidently an affectionate term for wife (cf. vv. 10, 12; 5:1-2; Tobit 7:16; 8:4, 7).
4:10 Again the word translated "love"means physical expressions of love (cf. 1:2). Her "oils"were her perfumes.
4:11 Milk and honey not only connote sweet delicacies but also the blessings of God (cf. Exod. 3:8). Lebanon was fragrant because of the many cedar trees that covered its hills.
". . . it is probably better to understand that the sweetness of the passionate kiss is in view."67
4:12 Solomon praised his bride's virginity also. She had kept herself a virgin for the man she would marry.
4:13-14 She was like a garden full of beautiful and pleasing plants that was now open to Solomon.68These spices, fruits, and flowers probably represent her whole person rather than her individual parts.
"The most obvious feature of the Song of Songs is the sexually explicit nature of the material, sensitively guised in figurative language."69
4:15 Though she had kept her most intimate parts from others in the past, they were now open to Solomon, and he experienced full satisfaction with her love.
4:16 The Shulammite invited Solomon to take her completely. She called on the winds to carry the scents to which Solomon had referred so he would find full satisfaction (cf. vv. 13-14).
5:1 Solomon exulted in the joy that union with his beloved had brought him, and he commended it to others. This interpretation seems preferable to the views that "the onlookers[?!] and guests,"70or God,71or the poet (not Solomon)72spoke the words, "Eat . . . O lovers."The metaphors used express the fully satisfying nature of his sexual experience (cf. 2 Sam. 13:15).
"Biblically, when a lover gives himself to his beloved as these two have done, the relationship of each has changed to all the rest of the human race. That is why traditionally in our culture a wedding cannot be performed without witnesses. That is the reason behind the publishing of wedding bans. The taking of a woman by a man is a public matter.
"Furthermore, what one does with one's sexuality is of concern to God (Exod 20:14). Likewise, it is a concern to everyone else. The woman now belongs to the man and the man to the woman. This changes all other personal relationships. Thus the witnesses present at weddings represent the larger society. This is why weddings are considered legal matters.
"Self-giving love between the sexes is of social significance. Society must know. How else can marriage be a witness and testimony to the relationship of Christ and the church? One Savior, one spouse!"73
