Song of Solomon 5:16

His mouth [is] most sweet: yea, he [is] altogether lovely. This [is] my beloved, and this [is] my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Ver. 16. His mouth is most sweet.] Heb., His palate - that is, his word and promises, which are, as it were, the breath of Christ's mouth - is all sweet. This she had celebrated before, Son 5:13 but, as not satisfied therewith, she repeats it, and rolls it again as sugar under her tongue. She doubles this commendation, to show that that is the chief lovely thing in Christ, his word; this fruit she had found sweet unto her palate, Son 2:3 and she spareth not to set it forth, as here, the second time, Mallemus carere, &c. We had rather be without fire, water, bread, sun, air, &c, saith a Dutch divine, than that one sweet sentence of our blessed Saviour, "Come unto me all ye that are weary," &c.

Yea, he is altogether lovely.] Totus totus desiderabilis, wholly amiable, every whit of him to be desired. Moses thought him so, when he preferred the "reproach of Christ," the worst part of him, the heaviest piece of his cross, before "all the treasures in Egypt," that treasure chest of the world. Heb 11:26 Those of this world see no such excellence and desirableness in Christ and his ways, Psa 22:6-7 nor can do, till soundly shaken; "I will shake all nations, and then the desire of all nations" - that is, Christ - "shall come," Hag 2:7 with stirring affections, saying, as Isa 26:9 "With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early." Lo, this is the voice of every true child of the Church; and these "desires of the righteous shall be satisfied." Pro 10:24

This is my beloved, &c., ] q.d., You may see I have cause to look after him; neither can you do better than to do likewise: howsoever, when you see him, do my errand to him. as Son 5:7 And here we have most excellent rhetoric, which, in the beginning of a speech, requires τα ηοη, milder affections; in the end of it, τα παθν, stronger passions, that may leave deepest impressions.