Song of Solomon 1:16

Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.

Ver. 16. Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant.] Behold thou art fair, my love, &c., said he to her a It were fitter a fair deal for me to say so to thee, saith she here to him, since all my beauty is but borrowed of thee; it is but a spark of thy flame, a drop of thine ocean. If I shine at all, it is with thy beams only; if I be any whit comely, it is with the comeliness that thou hast put upon me. Christ as a man (how much more as God blessed for ever?) was "fairer" by far "than all the children of men," Psa 45:2 because free from sin, and "full of grace and truth," as in Eze 28:7 there is mentioned "beauty of wisdom." And the heathen philosopher b could say, that if moral wisdom (how much more spiritual?) could be seen with mortal eyes, it would draw all men's hearts unto itself. But besides his inward beauty, which was inconceivable, inasmuch as in him, as in a temple, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, that is, personally, in the body of Christ, there was a most fair form and a divine face. He had a good complexion, and such a comely countenance as did express a divinity in him. If St Stephen's face, when he stood before the council, shone like an angel's face, Act 6:15 and if his eye could pierce the heavens, Act 7:55 how much more may we think Christ did? True it is, that by reason of his sufferings in the flesh, "his visage was marred more than any man's, and his form more than the sons of men." Isa 52:14 And "he had no form nor comeliness" - viz., in the eyes of his perverse countrymen, who when they saw him they could discern no such beauty wherefore they should so desire him; "He was despised and rejected of men," For what reason? "He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," which had so drank up his spirits, and furrowed his fair face, that at little past thirty years of age he was reckoned to be towards fifty; he seemed to the Jews to be much older than he was indeed, as some are of the opinion. See John 8:57 .

Yea, pleasant.] Sweet as a flower, sweet as a honeycomb, c Mell in ore, melos in aure, iubilum in corde, "sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." Pro 16:24 He that hath once but lightly tasted how sweet the Lord Christ is, doth soon disrelish, yea, loathe, in comparison, all this world's homely fare, tasteless fooleries.

“ Clitorio quicunque sitim de lento levarit,

Vina fugit, gaudetque meris abstemius undis. ”

- Ovid. Met. lib. 15.

Yea, our bed is green.] Our bridal bed, which was wont to be decked with garlands and green boughs. Or, "our bedstead" - so it may be rendered - "is green," made of green and growing timber, as Christ's house is built of living and thriving stones. 1Pe 2:5 There is a perpetual greenness - the fruit of the vegetative Spirit of God within them - upon all Christ's olive trees. Psa 52:8 And these "green things must not be hurt." Rev 9:4 Or if they be by a wound at the root, so as that they suffer a fit of barrenness, or seem to be sapless, yet they shall revirescere, recover their former greenness, as the Philippians did, and had a new spring after a sharp winter; they had deflourished for a time, but now reflourised. ανεθαλετε , Php 4:16

a Inter Romanos dicebatur, Tu Caius ego Caia. Between Romans it was said, You are Gaius since I am Gaia. So here the spouse, I am Japha, because thou art Japhe. Joppa, a fair haven town, had its name from this root; like as "the fair heavens," Act 27:8 and the beautiful "gate." Act 3:2

b Plato.

c ωραιος, Sept., The spring or flower of beauty.