1. Song of Solomon 7:8–9 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What goes down smoothly, gliding over lips and teeth?

Song of Solomon 7:8–9 (ESV)

8 I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples,

The lively interaction between the man and the woman continues as she now responds to his poem of praise and his desire to enjoy the delights she offers in Song of Solomon 7:1–9a.

The woman interrupts the man and completes the thought in Song of Solomon 7:9a.1 Her attention has been engaged by her beloved’s poem of admiration, so that she is no longer a dancer observed (if only in his mind) but a lover aroused. No sooner has the man expressed his own wish to taste her wine than she responds with the fervent hope that he will indeed enjoy it. That it will in fact flow over the lips of both lovers as they lie together.2 The exchange of pleasure in kissing is meant.3 The images of distance and inaccessibility that were created by her coldness towards him in Song of Solomon 5:2–8 are now bridged by the wine that flows from the lips of one to the other.4