The Bride moves from speaking of Dodi as an “apple tree” with delightful fruit and shade to entering Dodi’s “house of wine.” The “house of wine” is a variation of the image of the tree.
The apple tree is a place of fruit and shade, a house of fruit. The house of wine is a glorified tree: A tree is transformed into a house, and the fruit of a plant is transformed into wine.
The house of wine is a house where Dodi offers love that is better than wine (1:2). It is a house of love. But the house of wine is also, typologically, a reference to the temple, Yahweh’s house where He drinks wine along with His Bride.
Yahweh meets with Israel His bride in His tree house, His cedar-lined temple. There Yahweh and His Bride enjoy the wine of mutual love.
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