Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 4:10

How fair is thy love, my sister, [my] spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

10. How fair is thy love ] How sweet are thy caresses. In the next clause also, love should be caresses.

spices ] Better, perfumes.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Son 4:10-11

How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

Christs estimate of His people

I.

Christ first praises His peoples love. Dost thou love God, my hearer? Dost thou love Jesus? Hearken, then, to what the Lord Jesus says to thee, by His Holy Spirit, from this Song! Thy love, poor, feeble, and cold though it be, is very precious unto the Lord Jesus, in fact it is so precious, that He Himself cannot tell how precious it is. He does not say how precious, but He says how fair Pause here, my soul, to contemplate a moment, and let thy joy wait a while. Jesus Christ has banquets in heaven, such as we have never yet tasted, and yet He does not feed there. He has wines in heaven richer far than all the grapes of Eshcol could produce, but where does he seek His wines? In our hearts. Not all the love of angels, nor all the joys cf. Paradise, are so dear to. Him as the love of His poor people compassed with infirmity. The love of the believer is sweet to Christ.

II. Do not imagine, however, that Christ despises our faith, or our hope, or our patience, or our humility. All these graces are precious to Him, and they are described in the next sentence under the title of ointment, and the working of these graces, their exercise and development, are compared with the smell of ointment. Now both wine and ointment were used in the sacrifice of the Jews; sweet smelling myrrh and spices were used in meat-offerings and drink-offerings before the Lord. But, saith Jesus Christ to His Church, all these offerings of wine, and all that burning of incense, is nothing to Me compared to your graces. Your love is My wine, your virtues are My sweet-smelling ointments. Yes, believer, when you are on your sick-bed and are suffering with patience; when you go about your humble way to do good by stealth; when you distribute of your alms to the poor; when you lift up your thankful eye to Heaven; when you draw near to God with humble prayer; when you make confession of your sin to Him; all these acts are like the smell of ointment to Him, the smell of a sweet savour, and He is gratified and pleased. O Jesus, this is condescension indeed, to be pleased with such poor things as we have. Oh, this is love; it proves Thy love to us, that Thou canst make so much out of little, and esteem so highly that which is of such little worth!

III. Now we come to the third, Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb. Christs people are not a dumb people, they were once, but they talk now. I do not believe a Christian can keep the secret that God gives him if he were to try; it would burst his lips open to get out. Now it is but poor, poor matter that any of us can speak. When we are most eloquent in our Masters praise, how far our praises fall beneath His worth! When we are most earnest in prayer, how powerless is our wrestling compared with the great blessing that we seek to obtain! But Jesus Christ does not find any fault in what the Church speaks. He says, No, Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb. You know the honey that drops out of the honeycomb is the best–it is called the life-honey. So the words that drop from the Christians lips are the very words of his life, his life-honey, and they ought to be sweet to every one. They are as sweet to the taste of the Lord Jesus as the drops of the honeycomb. And now, Christians, will you not talk much about Jesus? Will you not speak often of Him? Will you not give your tongue more continually to prayer and praise, and speech that ministers to edifying, when you have such a listener as this, such an auditor who stoops from heaven to hear you, and who values every word you speak for Him? But, says one, if I were to try to talk about Jesus Christ, I do not know what I should say. If you wanted any honey, and nobody would bring it to you, I suppose the best way, if you were in the country, would be to keep some bees, would it not? It would be very well for you Christian people if you kept bees. Well, says one, I suppose our thoughts are to be the bees. We are always to be looking about for good thoughts, and flying on to the flowers where they are to be found; by reading, by meditation, and by prayer, we are to send bees out of the hive. Certainly, if you do not read your Bibles, you will have no honey, because you have no bees. But when you read your Bibles, and study those precious texts, it is like bees settling on flowers, and sucking the sweetness out of them.

IV. This brings us to the next topic Honey and milk are under thy tongue. I find it necessary when I preach to keep a good stock of words under my tongue as well as those that are on it. Very often I have got a simile just ready to come out, and I have thought, Ah, that is one of your laughable similes, take that back. I am obliged to change it for something else. If I did that a little oftener perhaps it would be better, but I cannot do it. I have sometimes a whole host of them under my tongue, and I am obliged to keep them back. Honey and milk are under thy tongue. That is not the only meaning. The Christian is to have words ready to come out by and by. Yon know the hypocrite has words upon his tongue. We speak about solemn sounds upon a thoughtless tongue; but the Christian has his words first under the tongue. There they lie. They come from his heart; they do not come from the top of his tongue,–they are not superficial surface-work, but they come from under the tongue–down deep,–things that he feels, and matters that he knows. Nor is this the only meaning. The things that are under the tongue are thoughts that have never yet been expressed; they do not get to the top of the tongue, but lie there half formed and are ready to come out; but either because they cannot come out, or we have not time to let them out, there they remain, and never come into actual words. Now Jesus Christ thinks very much even of these; He says, Honey and milk are under thy tongue; and Christian meditation and Christian contemplation are to Christ like honey for sweetness and like milk for nourishment.

V. And, then, last of all, the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. The odiferous herbs that grew on the side of Lebanon delighted the traveller, and, perhaps, here is an allusion to the peculirly sweet smell of the cedar wood. Now, the garments of a Christian are twofold–the garment of imputed righteousness, and the garment of inwrought sanctification. I think the allusion here is to the second. The garments of a Christian are his every-day actions–the things that he wears upon him wherever he goes. Now these smell very sweet to the Lord Jesus. What should you think if Jesus should meet you at the close of the day, and say to you, I am pleased with the works of to-day? I know you would reply, Lord, I have done nothing for Thee. You would say like those at the last day, Lord, when saw we Thee hungry and fed Thee? when saw we Thee thirsty and gave Thee drink? You would begin to deny that you had done any good thing. He would say, Ah, when thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee; when thou wast at thy bedside in prayer I heard thee; I saw thee when the tempter came, and thou saidst, Get thee hence, Satan; I saw thee give thine alms to one of My poor sick children; I heard thee speak a good word to the little child and teach him the name of Jesus; I heard the groan when swearing polluted thine ears: I heard thy sigh when thou sawest the iniquity of this great city; I saw thee when thine hands were busy; I saw that thou wast not an eye-servant or a man-pleaser, but that in singleness of purpose thou didst serve God in doing thy daily business; I saw thee, when the day was ended, give thyself to God again; I have marked thee mourning over the sins thou hast committed, and I tell thee I am pleased with thee. The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 10. How much better is thy love] dodayich; Hebrew. ; Septuagint. Ubera tua; Vulgate. “Thy breasts.” And so all the versions, except the Chaldee.

Smell of thine ointments] Perfumes.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

How fair, how amiable and acceptable to me, is thy love! I do not disdain thy love, as I might do, but take it kindly, and prize it highly.

How much better is thy love than wine! of which See Poole “Son 1:2“, See Poole “Son 1:4“.

Of thine ointments; of the gifts and graces of Gods Spirit, wherewith thou art anointed. Compare Isa 61:1; 1Jo 2:20,27.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. loveHebrew,“loves”; manifold tokens of thy love.

much betteransweringto her “better” (So 1:2),but with increased force. An Amoebean pastoral characterpervades the Song, like the classic Amoebean idylls and eclogues.

wineThe love of Hissaints is a more reviving cordial to Him than wine; for example, atthe feast in Simon’s house (Luk 7:36;Luk 7:47; Joh 4:32;compare Zec 10:7).

smell of . . . ointments thanall spicesanswering to her praise (So1:3) with increased force. Fragrant, as being fruits of HisSpirit in us (Ga 5:22).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

How fair is thy love, [my] sister, my spouse!…. Of these titles, [See comments on So 4:8];

[See comments on So 4:9]; and of the love of the church to Christ,

[See comments on So 1:3]; here said to be “fair”, lovely and delightful, grateful and acceptable; as it is to Christ, in the several acts and effects of it, and therefore the word is plural, “thy loves” r; being exceeding beautiful in his eye, and extremely well pleasing to him; therefore says, “how fair!” as admiring it, it being hard to say how fair it was; and this appears from the large manifestations of Christ’s love to those that love him; and from his causing all things to work together for the good of such; and from his preparing and laying up things, unseen and unheard of, for them;

how much better is thy love than wine! which is saying the same thing of her love to him she says of his to her, So 1:2; her love to Christ is more pleasant, more cheering, and more acceptable to him, than the wine of legal sacrifices, or than all burnt offerings; or than any duty whatever, unless that is the principle from whence it flows,

Mr 12:33;

and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! the same with Christ’s ointments, commended So 1:3; namely, the graces of the Spirit, which are in Christ without measure, and from him communicated to his people; and when exercised by them, are very delightful to him, and preferred by him to “all spices”: even to all those used in the holy anointing oil, typical of them, Ex 30:23.

r “amores tui”, Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He proceeds still further to praise her attractions.

10 How fair is thy love, my sister-bride!

How much better thy love than wine!

And the fragrance of thy unguents than all spices!

11 Thy lips drop honey, my bride;

Honey and milk are under thy tongue;

And the fragrance of thy garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Regarding the connection of the pluralet. with the plur. of the pred., vid., at Son 1:2. The pred. praises her love in its manifestations according to its impression on the sight; , according to its experience on nearer intercourse. As in Son 4:9 the same power of impression is attributed to the eyes and to the necklace, so here is intermingled praise of the beauty of her person with praise of the fragrance, the odour of the clothing of the bride; for her soul speaks out not only by her lips, she breathes forth odours also for him in her spices, which he deems more fragrant than all other odours, because he inhales, as it were, her soul along with them. , from , ebullire ( vid., under Pro 5:3, also Schultens), is virgin honey, ( acetum , Pliny, xi. 15), i.e., that which of itself flows from the combs ( ). Honey drops from the lips which he kisses; milk and honey are under the tongue which whispers to him words of pure and inward joy; cf. the contrary, Psa 140:4. The last line is an echo of Gen 27:27. is (from , complicare, complecti) transposed (cf. from , from ). As Jacob’s raiment had for his old father the fragrance of a field which God had blessed, so for Solomon the garments of the faultless and pure one, fresh from the woods and mountains of the north, gave forth a heart-strengthening savour like the fragrance of Lebanon (Hos 4:7), viz., of its fragrant herbs and trees, chiefly of the balsamic odour of the apples of the cedar.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

10. Wine, “that maketh glad the heart of man,” is mentioned even by Homer as grateful to gods and men. But the sympathy of woman, warming into tenderness and concentrating into love, is uniformly spoken of as the most gladdening and enlivening to the heart of man. And the smell, etc.

Sweeter than breath of morn in Ceylon’s grove,

Breathed from her lips the fragrance of her love.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments