Song of Solomon 4:11

dropas the honeycomb Rather, drop virgin honey. Nôphethis honey that drops from the comb of itself. Budde understands this verse of the sweetness of kisses. Oettli and others think the -virgin honey" means loving words. Analogy, both in the Scriptures and in profane poetry, is in favour of the second view. In Proverbs 5:3 we have the very same phrase as here. "The lips of the strange woman drop honey." That kisses are not meant there, is clear from the second clause, "and her palate is smoother than oil." Cp. Theocritus, Idyllxx. 26, quoted by Ginsburg:

"More sweet my lips than milk in luscious rills,

Lips whence the honey, as I speak, distils."

Cp. also Proverbs 16:24, "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb."

the smell ofLebanon Owing to the aromatic shrubs of a peculiarly penetrating and pleasant odour which grow everywhere in Lebanon, anyone who has once lived there would recognise where he was, even if he had been suddenly transported thither again blindfold. This odour, and not the perfume of the cedars, is probably the -smell of Lebanon" here referred to.