My sister my bride

Chapter Four

verses 8-9

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon.  Descend from the crest of Amana,  from the top of Senir,  the summit of Hermon,  from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

This brief song offers an expressive presentation both of the woman’s aloofness or unapproachability and of the man’s power as he overcomes these things.  He wants to compel her to come down from her godlike pedestal—a proud request of a proud woman.  (29) page 158

you [drive me crazy] with a [single one of your glances], with [a single sparkle] of your necklace. (29) page 161

The fact that many ancient Near Eastern goddesses were pictured naked or nearly naked yet opulently adorned with jewelry shows the great erotic effect ascribed to jewelry and its glitter. (29) page 164

verse 10

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!

In v 9 the man calls the one who drives him senseless “sister”.  In virtually all ancient Egyptian love songs the lovers address one another as “sister” and “brother.”  ………. The “sister/brother” address is found often in early Sumerian love poetry; it did not originate in Egypt.  It is a metaphor, meant to express the intense feeling of relatedness and solidarity that has animated lovers in every age. (29) page 163

The word for love in verse 10 is dud, meaning sexual love.  Thus at this point active foreplay begins whereas in the previous section Solomon was merely eyeing the beauties of his new wife.  In these two verses he again describes the beauties of his new wife, but this time from a different perspective.  Previously he used the Hebrew word yahoo translated “beautiful” (vs.1), which describes her love relative to the impression she made on him visually.  That description is found in verses 105.  But now, using the word tofu, also translated “beautiful”, he describes her love relative to his physical experience of her.  Thus earlier he had praised her for her outward beauties which he saw (yaphu), but now he will extol the beauties of her love according to what he experiences in their first intercourse (tofu).

Verse 11 continues to point to the fact that this is a description based on experience and not on sight alone.  Her lips are like virgin honey that flows of itself from the honeycomb.  Previously (vs. 3) her lips were described as to their color in accordance with how they appeared to his sight………..the senses of taste and smell are intricately involved.  (24 ) page 37

The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.

allusion to the custom of perfuming clothes.  Lebanon was renowned for it fragrance (Hosea 14:6-7)  (the five megiloth) page 16

My sister, my bride is showing an incredible equality between the two of them in his eyes.  In their society, he was the king, he was a man, he was rich.  He was seen as far superior to her. But in his eyes they were equals in their relationship.