Temple Man

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.