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Song of Solomon

Song of Songs

About this book
Chapter 4

1 The Lover to His Beloved: Oh, you are beautiful, my darling! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending from Mount Gilead.⁠ 2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing place; each of them has a twin, and not one of them is missing. 3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread; your mouth is lovely. Your forehead behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate. 4 Your neck is like the tower of David built with courses of stones; one thousand shields are hung on it—all shields of valiant warriors. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of the gazelle grazing among the lilies. 6 Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee, I will go up to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.⁠ 7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling! There is no blemish in you! 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana,⁠ from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards. 9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride!⁠ You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice! 11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue.⁠ The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. 12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain. 13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits:⁠ henna with nard,⁠ 14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon⁠ with every kind of spice, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. 15 You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water⁠ flowing down from Lebanon. 16 The Beloved to Her Lover: Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind! Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell.⁠ May my beloved come into his garden and eat its delightful fruit!

Texts in conversation

Honey as Temptation and Love in Proverbs and Song of Solomon

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Proverbs 5 and Song of Solomon 4 both use honey as a metaphor for speech and desire, but with opposite meanings. In Proverbs, honeyed lips represent temptation that leads to ruin, while in Song of Solomon they express sweetness and intimacy within love.

Passages

Proverbs 5:3

Hebrew Bible
1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom; pay close attention to my understanding, 2 in order to safeguard discretion and that your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

Song of Solomon 4:11

Hebrew Bible · Song of Songs
9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice! 11 Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. 12 The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain. 13 Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits: henna with nard,
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Song of Solomon

References

"... As the favorite sweetening ingredient of most foods, honey became synonymous with sweetness. Thus “honeyed words” could mean eloquence, and the Psalmist could sing, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 119:103). On the other hand, the honey could be tantalizing and dangerous. Proverbs warns that the “lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil” (Proverbs 5:3). Yet, in another place, the wise writer also notes that it is a natural pleasure to enjoy: “Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste” (Proverbs 24:13). Like all good and natural things, one can indulge it to excess: “If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it, and you will vomit” (Proverbs 25:27). King Solomon loved the imagery of honey, using it famously in his great wedding song, the Song of Solomon: “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk.” Then he invites the other guests to join him (Song of Solomon 5:1). In fact, his favorite description of his bride is that her “lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb ... milk and honey are under your tongue” (Song of Solomon 4:11) ..."
Nancy M. Tischler, All Things in the Bible (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), 64–65.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Proverbs 5:3 and Song of Solomon 4:11

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