The woman’s description of her lover in Song of Songs 5:6-10 draws on terminology used to describe the temple – there’s myrrh, sockets, inlays, cedars of Lebanon.
More, the sequence of the description is not only head-to-foot, but also roughly follows the pattern of the temple.
Head of gold, pure gold: Holy of Holies, especially the ark.
Eyes like doves (keeping in mind the linkage of doves and flame from a previous post, and eyes with lamps): Lampstands.
Cheeks with herbs and spices: Incense and incense altar.
Lips like lilies: The lily shape of the capitals on the two pillars, and the lily design of sea and water basins.
Legs like pillars of alabaster: The structural supports of the temple.
Form like Lebanon, like cedars: Cedar wood interior of the temple.
Mouth full of sweetness: This could be the opening of the temple, or possibly the altar, where Yahweh’s bread is kept.
Or, we may have moved out of the temple and back in: After we see the lilies in the courtyard, we move back to see the pillars and the cedar interior. When the woman again mentions the mouth, we are back in the Holy of Holies, which 1 Kings calls the debir , a work linked to the Hebrew word for “word” ( deber ) and “speak” ( dabar ).
In any case, the lover, like his bride, is described like a temple.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
