Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 4:7
Thou [art] all fair, my love; [there is] no spot in thee.
Section 4:75:1: The king meeting the bride in the evening of the same day, expresses once more his love and admiration in the sweetest and tenderest terms and figures. He calls her now bride (spouse, Son 4:8) for the first time, to mark it as the hour of their espousals, and sister-bride (spouse, Son 4:9-10, Son 4:12; Son 5:1), to express the likeness of thought and disposition which henceforth unites them. At the same time he invites her to leave for his sake her birthplace and its mountain neighborhood, and live henceforth for him alone.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Thou art all fair – there is no spot in thee.] “My beloved, every part of thee is beautiful; thou hast not a single defect.”
The description given of the beauties of Daphne, by OVID, Metam. lib. i. ver. 497, has some similarity to the above verses: –
Spectat inornatos collo pendere capillos.
Et, quid si comantur? ait. Videt igne micantes
Sideribus similes oculos; videt oscula, quae non
Est vidisse satis. Laudat digitosque, manusque,
Brachiaque, et nudos media plus parte lacertos.
Si qua latent meliora putat.
Her well-turn’d neck he view’d, (her neck was bare,)
And on her shoulders her disheveled hair.
O, were it comb’d, said he, with what a grace
Would every waving curl become her face!
He view’d her eyes, like heavenly lamps that shone,
He view’d her lips, too sweet to view alone;
Her taper fingers, and her panting breast.
He praises all he sees; and, for the rest,
Believes the beauties yet unseen the best.
DRYDEN.
Jayadeva describes the beauty of Radha in nearly the same imagery: “Thy lips, O thou most beautiful among women, are a bandhujiva flower; the lustre of the madhuca beams upon thy cheek; thine eye outshines the blue lotos; thy nose is a bud of the tila; the cunda blossom yields to thy teeth. Surely thou descendedst from heaven, O slender damsel! attended by a company of youthful goddesses; and all their beauties are collected in thee.” See these poems, and the short notes at the end.
The same poet has a parallel thought to that in So 4:5, “Thy two breasts,” &c. The companions of Radha thus address her: “Ask those two round hillocks which receive pure dew drops from the garland playing on thy neck, and the buds on whose tops start aloft with the thought of thy beloved.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou art all fair; it is needless to mention the several beauties of all thy parts, for, in one word, thou art wholly beautiful; and it may be said more truly of thee than it was of Absalom, 2Sa 14:25, that from the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head there is no blemish in thee.
There is no spot in thee; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, as if the people of God were really perfect, and free from all sin; but either,
1. Comparatively, no such spot or blemish as is in wicked men, or as is inconsistent with true grace, of which Moses speaks, Deu 32:5. Or,
2. In regard of Gods gracious acceptation, in which respect he is said not to behold iniquity in Jacob, Num 23:21. God doth not look upon them with a severe eye, as they are in themselves, but in and through Christ, in whom he accepts them as if they were perfect, partly because it is their chief design, desire, and endeavour to be so, and partly because Christ hath undertaken to make them so, Eph 5:25,27, and they shall one day be such.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Assurance that He is goingfrom her in love, not in displeasure (Joh 16:6;Joh 16:7).
all fairstill strongerthan Son 1:15; Son 4:1.
no spotour privilege(Eph 5:27; Col 2:10);our duty (2Co 6:17; Jdg 1:23;Jas 1:27).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou art all fair, my love,…. Being justified by the righteousness of Christ, washed in his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit; of the title, my “love”, see So 1:9. The church is often said by Christ to be “fair”, his “fair one”, and the “fairest among women”, So 1:8; but here “all fair”, being a perfection of beauty, and perfectly comely through his comeliness: this is said to show her completeness in Christ, as to justification; and that, with respect to sanctification, she had a perfection of parts, though not of degrees; and to observe, that the church and “all” the true members of it were so, the meanest and weakest believer, as well as the greatest and strongest. It is added,
[there is] no spot in thee; not that the saints have no sin in them; nor any committed by them; nor that their sins are not sins; nor that they have no spots in them, with respect to sanctification, which is imperfect; but with respect to their justification, as having the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and covered with that spotless robe, they are considered as having no spot in them; God sees no sin in them, so as to reckon it to them, and condemn them for it; and they stand unblamable and unreproveable in his sight; and will be presented by Christ, both to himself and to his father, and in the view of men and angels, “not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing”, Eph 5:27, upon them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This childlike modest disposition makes her yet more lovely in the eyes of the king. He breaks out in these words:
7 Thou art altogether fair, my love,
And no blemish in thee.
Certainly he means, no blemish either of soul or body. In Son 4:1-5 he has praised her external beauty; but in Son 4:6 her soul has disclosed itself: the fame of her spotless beauty is there extended to her would no less than to her external appearance. And as to her longing after freedom from the tumult and bustle of court life, he thus promises to her:
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7. Thou art all fair Encouraged by this ardent interruption, the Beloved, in hopeful tone and lively phraseology, declares that she shall escape freely with him, and shall be safe in any and every place, on mountains and among wild beasts. Her declaration of preference, now fixed, if for the moment wavering, gives him the courage and animation belonging to perfect confidence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
What a rich thought is contained in those words of Jesus concerning his Church. In his eye the Church is not only fair but spotless. So that, Reader, while, God’s dear children are mourning over the innumerable errors they feel in themselves, and under which they daily groan being burthened: in the view of Jesus as washed in his blood, and clothed in his righteousness, they are without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Jesus having presented them to himself as without blame before him in love. Eph 5:27 . Reader! how blessed the thought that Jesus and his Church, Jesus and his people, in the sight of God the Father are one. And though the followers of the Lord feel the sad consequences daily of a fallen nature, and cry out under it through manifold, and as they sometimes think, increasing infirmities; yet it is in Jesus they are beheld, and their whole acceptance ariseth, not from what they are in themselves, but from what they are in the beloved.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Son 4:7 Thou [art] all fair, my love; [there is] no spot in thee.
Ver. 7. Thou art all fair, my love. ] Christ, having graciously answered his spouse’s petition with a promise of his gracious presence with her and providence over her, proceeds in her commendation. A perfection of parts he here grants her, though not of degrees, a comparative perfection also in regard of the wicked, whose “spot is not the spot of his children.” Deu 31:5 He calls her his spouse in the next verse. The Hebrew word a imports that, being dressed in all her bride attire, she is all fair, and hath perfection of beauty, Jer 2:32 and is all glorious within and without, not having spot, wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and spotless. Eph 5:26-27 Fair he called her before, Son 4:1 but new,
All fair.
There is no spot in thee,
a Calab of Calol, to profit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Son 4:7-15
7You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
May you come with me from Lebanon.
Journey down from the summit of Amana,
From the summit of Senir and Hermon,
From the dens of lions,
From the mountains of leopards.
9You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;
You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes,
With a single strand of your necklace.
10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all kinds of spices!
11Your lips, my bride, drip honey;
Honey and milk are under your tongue,
And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
With choice fruits, henna with nard plants,
14Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
With all the trees of frankincense,
Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices.
15You are a garden spring,
A well of fresh water,
And streams flowing from Lebanon.
Son 4:7 One wonders if this is a delayed reaction to her unexpectedly dark skin (cf. Son 1:5-6) or if this was a way for the man to affirm that he liked everything about the maiden (cf. Son 4:9).
Son 4:8 This refers to the bride being from northern Israel. It may be a metaphor for her being far away, separated or secluded from him (i.e., in Jerusalem).
Son 4:9 sister In Song of Songs the maiden is greeted by several phrases or terms of endearment:
1. most beautiful among women, Son 1:8; Son 5:9; Son 6:1
2. my darling, Son 1:9; Son 1:15; Son 2:2; Son 2:10; Son 2:13; Son 4:1; Son 4:7; Son 6:4
3. my beloved, Son 1:13-14
4. my beautiful one, Son 2:10; Son 2:13
5. O my dove, Son 2:14; Son 5:2; Son 6:9
6. my sister, Son 1:9-10; Son 1:12; Son 5:1-2 (one of several idioms common to Egyptian love songs)
7. my bride, Son 5:1
8. my perfect one, Son 5:2
9. O Shulammite, Son 6:13
10. O princess daughter, Son 7:1
11. My love, Son 7:6
Notice how Son 5:2 has several of these one after another #6 (BDB 27); #2 (BDB 946; #5 (BDB 401 I); and #8 (BDB 1070). She isnt never listed as queen which is surprising if these are Syrian (wasfs) wedding songs.
So too the man is greeted by the woman:
1. O you whom my soul loves, Son 1:7; Son 3:1-4
2. my beloved, Son 1:16; Son 2:8-10; Son 2:16-17; Son 4:16; Son 5:2; Son 5:4-6; Son 5:10; Son 6:2-3; Son 7:10; Son 7:13; Son 8:14
Notice that she never addresses him as brother or king.
You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes The VERB , NASB, beat faster; NKJV, NRSV, NJB, ravished; TEV, stolen (BDB 525, KB 515, Piel PERFECT) is a rare VERB from the same root as heart. It occurs only three times in the OT (two here in Piel and Job 11:12 in Niphal).
Just looking at her made his adrenalin flow (cf. Son 4:10)!
with a single glance of your eyes
With a single strand of your necklace Now the interpretive question is, Is this synonymous or step parallelism?
Eyes can refer to a kind of stone in a necklace (i.e., Akkadian). If so, it is synonymous parallelism. The man has mentioned her necklace before (cf. Son 1:10; Son 7:4).
Son 4:10-15 He described the maiden’s body in Son 4:1-6; now he describes her smell and taste:
1. her love is better than wine, Son 1:2; Son 1:4
2. she smells better than oils and spices, Son 1:3
3. her lips drip honey and milk, Son 1:2; Son 5:1
4. she smells like the forest of Lebanon
5. she is like a private (i.e., locked) and secluded garden (cf. Son 4:15; Son 5:1; Pro 5:15-23) with a water feature
a. a sealed fountain
b. a well of living water
c. flowing streams
6. she is like wonderful plants
a. an orchard of pomegranates
b. henna and nard plants
c. saffron, calamus, and cinnamon
d. fragrant trees of frankincense
e. myrrh, aloes, and the finest spices
Son 4:12 a garden locked This is a beautiful metaphor for the chastity and moral purity of the maiden. This is the first phrase of the first line. Many Hebrew MSS, as well as the ancient versions
1. Septuagint – Greek
2. Peshitta – Syriac
3. Vulgate – Latin
repeat it in the second line, which demands a slight textual change (i.e., gan for gal).
Son 4:13
NASB, NJB,
LXXshoots
NKJV, TEVplants
NRSVchannel
REBcheeks
JPSOAlimbs
This term (BDB 1019, KB 1517 II) seems to develop its meaning from the VERB to send out (KB 1511) and developed metaphorically into offshoot. The maiden is sending out fragrances like plants send out shoots and branches.
henna This is a blossom from which perfume and an orange dye is made (BDB 499 III). Women in the Near East still use this today to adorn fingernails, toenails; it is also used for other cosmetic purposes (cf. Son 1:14).
Son 4:14 saffron This flower (BDB 501) is mentioned only here in the OT. It is uncertain as to exactly which ancient plant it refers:
1. blue-flowered saffron crocus used for dying food, clothing, and walls yellow (cf. Helps for Translators, Fauna and Flora of the Bible, p. 124)
2. a thistle native to the Middle East, which has a red flower and is also used for dying food and clothing (cf. Helps for Translators, p. 175)
In Son 4:4 it seems to be listed along with other imported spices. Apparently in Song of Songs the flower mentioned was used for perfume, not dying.
calamus This refers to fragrant river cane (BDB 889). It is also used in the holy anointing oil (cf. Exo 30:23).
cinnamon This comes from India and Sri Lanka and is made from the bark of an evergreen tree (BDB 890). It was very popular and expensive (cf. Exo 30:23; Pro 7:17).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Thou art all fair, my love. The shepherd speaks: “love” being here feminine again.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Son 4:1, Son 5:16, Num 24:5, Psa 45:11, Psa 45:13, Eph 5:25-27, Col 1:22, 2Pe 3:14, Jud 1:24, Rev 21:2
Reciprocal: Son 1:8 – O thou Son 1:9 – O my Son 1:15 – thou art fair Son 2:10 – Rise Son 6:4 – beautiful Son 7:6 – General Joh 13:10 – but Eph 5:27 – not 1Ti 6:14 – without 2Pe 2:13 – Spots Rev 14:5 – without
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Perhaps she was not really as perfect as Solomon claimed here (cf. Son 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.