Song of Solomon 4:1-7

“Behold, you are fair, my love; behold, you are fair, Your eyes are as doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, Which lie along the side of mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly shorn, Which are come up from the washing, Of which every one has twins, And none is bereaved among them. Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, And your mouth is comely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate, Behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, Built for an armory, Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, All the shields of the mighty men. Your two breasts are like two fawns, Which are twins of a roe-deer, Which feed among the lilies.”

The royal bridegroom hails his bride and exults in her beauty, fully taken up with her attractions. The idea of the goats lying along the side of Mount Gilead is that it describes the luxuriousness of her hair (the mountain is seen as covered with hair), the ewes which have just been washed would be gleaming white, a picture of her shining white teeth, and the newly shorn may refer to the fact that her first teeth have now all been replaced, or may simply be stressing their whiteness, but it is dropped in the parallel description which may favor the former (Song of Solomon 6:6). Their being twins without bereavement indicates that all her teeth are present, pairing off each other, and none are missing. She is perfect in beauty. Her temples were as cool and delicious as pomegranate. The description of the neck has in mind the golden ornaments which hung around it like rows and rows of shields, which were undoubtedly a wedding gift from her bridegroom. The two twin fawns are probably to be seen as symbols of the anticipated fruitfulness of her breasts. It will be noted that apart from the ornaments on her neck all the descriptions would fit in with her country life and thus be doubly meaningful.

This is all a reminder of how our Lord Jesus Christ perceives His church, the new Israel, in terms of what He has made it and what it will be. It is whole and complete, the perfection of beauty through which God would shine forth (compare Psalms 50:2). Note how the emphasis is on the bride's perfections, not on her apparel, apart from the necklaces bestowed by the king. Yet while she herself is totally connected with nature, totally human, yet, like us, she carries on her the image of the heavenly in the golden ornaments around her neck, which demonstrate that she belongs to the King. In New Testament terms she is being made one with her beloved, and a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

If we wish to look for significance in the details we may see her luxurious hair as indicating to Him that she is one who is under His authority (1 Corinthians 11:10) and full of His glory (1 Corinthians 11:15). Her teeth emphasize the presentable and attractive appearance that she reveals towards Him and to the world (Matthew 5:16). Her scarlet lips are reminder that her words speak lovingly of His great sacrifice for her. Her comely mouth indicates that all the words that she speaks are pleasing to Him. Pomegranates, to which her temples were likened, were prominent on the high priestly vestments (Exodus 28:33; Exodus 39:24) and in the Temple (1 Kings 7:18; 1 Kings 7:20; 1 Kings 7:42) as signifying what was holy to God, indicating that she has ‘the mind of Christ' because of the Holy Spirit's illumination (1 Corinthians 2:16). The golden shields emphasize that she is under royal protection. Her two breasts offer the promise of life to all who will feed from her.

For the tower of David here, the sign of his possession of her as the son of David, which links her specifically with the coming King, contrast the later ‘ivory tower' when he sees her more in terms of her own beauty (Song of Solomon 7:4).