For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

The main male and female speakers (identified primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms) are indicated by the captions He and She respectively. The words of others are marked Friends. In some instances the divisions and their captions are debatable.[NIV text]

Passage: 7:1 -9

1 How beautiful your sandaled feet,
    O prince’s daughter!
Your graceful legs are like jewels,
    the work of an artist’s hands.
2 Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
    encircled by lilies.
3 Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle.
4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon
    by the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
    looking toward Damascus.
5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.
    Your hair is like royal tapestry;
    the king is held captive by its tresses.
6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
    my love, with your delights!
7 Your stature is like that of the palm,
    and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
    I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
    the fragrance of your breath like apples,
9     and your mouth like the best wine.

She

May the wine go straight to my beloved,
    flowing gently over lips and teeth.

A. Find Out

• 1. List the parts of her body he describes.
• 2. List the comparisons he makes.

B. Think:

• 1. Suggest what is conveyed by the comparison.
• 2. Complete the table below in your mind:

	Body	Comparison	Conveyed
1
2
2
3
4
4
4
5
5
7
7
9

C. Comment:

This is the third time he describes her in detail (4:1-5 & 6:5-7) and  this is the fullest description. It says he now knows her in intimate detail. It says that with his knowledge of her comes a boldness to express his appreciation of her. If we are a Christian husband, do we have the wisdom to express our love and appreciation of our wives in such a strong way?  God is not ashamed of sex. This is the inspired word of God. This is a passage of pure physical appreciation, about two people appreciating each other. This is a man speaking to his woman, not merely using her.  God gave us our bodies to appreciate one another within the marriage context.

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Oh Lord help me to speak real words of love to my spouse.

Passage:  7:10-13

10 I belong to my beloved,
    and his desire is for me.
11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside,
    let us spend the night in the villages.
12 Let us go early to the vineyards
    to see if the vines have budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
    and if the pomegranates are in bloom—
    there I will give you my love.
13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance,
    and at our door is every delicacy,
both new and old,
    that I have stored up for you, my beloved.

A. Find Out

• 1. What affirmation does she now make again? v.10
• 2. Where, generally, does she suggest they go? v.11
• 3. Where specifically does she suggest they go, and why? v.12
• 4. What does she say she’ll do there? v.12c
• 5. What will enhance their time there? v.13

B. Think:

• 1. Check 6:2  Where did she know he liked going?
• 2. How would her present suggestions therefore please him?
• 3. What is the purpose of her suggestion?

C. Comment:

“Let’s go away to somewhere beautiful where we can be alone and intimate together”, is the gist of this passage.  Again and again in the song we are presented with references to nature, gardens, or the country. Yes they dwell in a town but Hebrew gardens were often separate from the house and on the outskirts somewhere.  Thus they would have to go out of town to their gardens.

So she now suggests that they leave the business of the town and go out into the country, to the villages (to her home?) to a place a beauty and fruitfulness. What she is saying is “I have prepared an environment of beauty and fragrance where we can express our love in a beautiful way”.  All around them will be the blossoms giving off their scent, and just outside the flowers (mandrakes) add their scent as well. Sometimes in the Summer the blossom or the scent of  flowers almost makes the air heady and thick. It is in such an environment that she says, let’s share our love in fullness. 

What does this all say to us. On  the practical level, first of all, it should perhaps challenge those of us who are married to make time and effort to share our love with one another, to bring a creative beauty to our coming together.  On a spiritual plane it challenges us to consider the expression of our devotion to God. Can we be creative in the way we pray, read the Bible, worship?

D. Prayer Suggestion:

Lord, deliver me from drabness of life, from drabness of love, from drabness of worship. Lord help me to bring creative beauty back.