Song of Solomon 4:11

Son 4:11 Thy lips, O [my] spouse, drop [as] the honeycomb: honey and milk [are] under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments [is] like the smell of Lebanon.

Ver. 11. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as an honeycomb.] Heb., Drop the honeycomb. So Christ calls the doctrines and prayers of the Church, her thanksgivings, confessions, conferences, &c., which are things most pleasing to Christ, and do much comfort and edify the faithful. That golden mouthed preacher did so please the people, that it was grown to a proverb, Better the sun shine not, than Chrysostom preach not. Bilney the martyr, a little before he was burned, entreated much on that text, {Isa 43:2} "Fear not; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"; so that some of his friends present took such sweet fruit thereby, saith Mr Foxe, {a} that they caused the whole sentence to be fair written in tables, and some in their books; the comfort whereof in several of them was never taken away from them to their dying day. The same author saith {b} of Bishop Ridley, martyr, that he usually preached every Sunday and holiday, to whose sermons the people resorted, swarming about him like bees, and coveting the sweet juice of his heavenly doctrine. How pleasant and profitable to Latimer was the private conference he had with Bilney! and the like benefit had Ridley by Bradford, Luther by Staupicius, Galeacius by Peter Martyr, Junius by a countryman of his not far from Florence. Oο και απο γλωττης μελιτος γλυκιων ρεεν αυδη. {c}

Honey and milk are under thy tongue.] The language of Canaan is thy proper dialect; for Canaan was a land that flowed with milk and honey - with things both pleasant and profitable. Yea, I doubt not, saith an interpreter, but that under these terms the Holy Ghost meaneth fit food, as well for strong men as for weak ones in the Church. Milk most properly belongs to children; {1Co 3:2 Heb 5:12-13} and honey to them of more strength, as examples of the word and reason itself teacheth sufficiently, in Jonathan, {1Sa 14:27} and John Baptist. {Mat 3:4} By these comparisons also may well be understood the good housekeeping that is in Christ’s Church. Honey and milk she hath ever at hand. And why hath he put these provisions under her tongue, but that she should look to lip feeding? {Pro 10:22} Let our words be "always with grace." {Col 4:6} Mel in ore, verba lactis, this becomes the Church’s children. Fel in corde, fraus in factis, is for those brats of fathomless perdition, that have adders’ poison under their lips, {Psa 140:3} that being "in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition," show themselves by their words and actions to be the sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and of the whore, whose lips also drop the honeycomb, but her end is bitter as wormwood. {Pro 5:3-4 Isa 57:3}

And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.] Which was passing pleasant, by reason of the odoriferous and sweet smelling trees that grew there. Now what are these garments but the Church’s inward graces, say some; outward behaviour, say others, which is most gracious, amiable, and sweet, as far above all worldly grace as the smell of Lebanon is above the savour of common woods.

{a} Acts and Mon., 923.

{b} Ibid., 1559.

{c} Homer.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Son 4:11. Thy lips drop as the honey-comb — Thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me. Honey and milk are under thy tongue — Words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk. The smell of thy garments — Of that righteousness wherewith I have adorned thee; is like the smell of Lebanon — Which was very sweet and grateful in regard of the great number of sweet-smelling spices and trees which grew on that mountain.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because of thy confession and thanksgiving.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 11. Thy lips - drop as the honey-comb] Thy words are as delicious to my heart as the first droppings of the honey-comb are to the palate.

Honey and milk are under thy tongue] Eloquence and persuasive speech were compared among the ancients to honey and milk.

Thus Homer, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 247: -

Τοισι δε Νεστωρ

Ηδυεπης ανορουσε, λιγυς Πυλιων αγορητης.

Του και απο γλωσσης μελιτος γλυκιων ῥεεν αυδη.

Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd,

Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd.

But the figure is common to all writers and languages. A similar expression will be seen in the Gitagovinda.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. drop as the honeycomb] Rather, drop virgin honey. Nôpheth is 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 Pro_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, Idyll xx. 26, quoted by Ginsburg:

“More sweet my lips than milk in luscious rills,

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

Cp. also Pro_16:24, “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb.”

the smell of Lebanon] 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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER IV.

Lips. Teachers who accommodate their instructions to the capacity of their audience, (Calmet) giving milk to children, Hebrews v. 13., (Haydock) and 1 Corinthians iii. 2. --- In allusion, perhaps, to this passage, (Calmet) it was customary to give milk and honey to the new baptized. (Tertullian, coron.) --- Garments. Which were perfumed, (Genesis xxvii. 17., and Psalm xliv. 9.) and imply good works, (2 Corinthians v. 3., and Romans xiii. 14.; Calmet) and the external service and prayers of the Church, which ascend like incense, Psalm cxl. 2. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thy lips drop as the honey-comb; thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me.

Honey and milk; words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk.

Under thy tongue; by which phrase he may possibly intimate that her words were not uttered in hypocrisy, or with evil design, as many fair and smooth speeches are, but proceed from her very heart, which is under her tongue, as mischief is said to be under his tongue, Psa 10:7, who devised it in his heart. The smell of thy garments; of that righteousness wherewith I have clothed and adorned thee. Christ and the graces of the Spirit are oft, compared to garments, as Rom 13:14; Eph 4:24; 1Pe 5:5.

The smell of Lebanon; which is also mentioned and commended Hos 14:6, which must needs be very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet-smelling spices and trees which grew in that mountain.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Drop as the honeycomb — If her breath was like “incense on the air,” her words were most luscious. Some Arabian legends illustrate, incidentally, the extravagant fondness of Orientals for honey, and the hazards and adventures encountered in obtaining it among desert cliffs and in hostile territory. It was the only available sweet. The Scriptures speak of it in the same way. It was one of the “goodly things” of the Promised Land.

The smell of thy garments — As the Enamoured was now the guest of the king, she had received, as the eastern usage was, apparel fitting the place and occasion. (See the parable of the Wedding Garment.) This, as for a palace, would be sumptuous, and, as in the East, nothing if not fragrant. The perfume “of Lebanon” is like that of an American pine forest.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thy lips - Thy speeches both to me in prayer and praises, and to men for their edification, are highly acceptable to me. Milk - Words more sweet and comfortable than honey or milk. Garments - Of that righteousness wherewith I have adorned thee. Lebanon - Which was very sweet and grateful in regard of the great numbers of sweet-smelling spices and trees which grow on that mountain.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

flowing honey which is sweet.

Your lips drip the reasons of Torah.

and the fragrance of your garments the proper commandments that pertain to your garments: ritual fringes, the blue thread, the priestly raiments, and the prohibition of shaatnez (the mingling of wool and linen).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.