Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 4:11
Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The male lover addresses the bride immediately after praising her perfume and love, and just before describing her as a sealed garden. He speaks these words directly to her as part of a sequence of sensory evaluation.
The words — The text highlights נֹ֛פֶת (No.fet), meaning honey or honeycomb, and תִּטֹּ֥פְנָה (ti.To.fe.nah), meaning they drip, to describe the bride's lips. It also pairs דְּבַשׁ (de.Vash), meaning honey, with חָלָב (cha.Lav), meaning milk, under her tongue.
The thread — The imagery of dripping honey appears in Song 5:1, while the scent of garments parallels Isaac’s blessing in Genesis 27:27. Lips dripping with sweet or fragrant substances also recur in Song 5:13.
Why it lands — The verse states that the bride's lips produce sweetness like dripping honeycomb, that honey and milk rest under her tongue, and that her garments carry the fragrance of Lebanon. A reader must notice how physical description functions as the immediate context for the subsequent metaphor of enclosed fertility.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 5:1 I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.
- Genesis 27:27 So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
- Song of Solomon 5:13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
- Song of Solomon 7:9 and your mouth like the finest wine. May it flow smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over lips and teeth.
- Hosea 14:6 His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
- Psalms 19:10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
- Psalms 45:8 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.
- Psalms 71:14 But I will always hope and will praise You more and more.
- Psalms 71:23 When I sing praise to You my lips will shout for joy, along with my soul, which You have redeemed.
- Proverbs 5:3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,