Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
The King has been describing the woman He loves. Now He drops the questions and comparisons and speaks straight to her, about her cheeks, her neck, and the jewels on them. Two questions follow. Where did her beauty come from, and what do the jewels stand for?
A direct and personal word
The praise here is not general. One writer notes the shift in how the King speaks once the earlier exchange is over.
Andrew MillerNow He speaks of her entirely. The subject of the questions is dropped; His address is direct and personal. And how full and free are the expressions of His admiring love. "I have compared you, my love … your cheeks are lovely … your neck with chains."
The beauty is His own gift
Human admiration often dresses up its object in imagined qualities. What the King admires here is real, because He supplied it.
Andrew MillerHow often the human mind gives attractions to the object of its admiration, and then loves and worships its own image. Not so the divine mind: there, all is real. The Lord clothes the bride of His heart with His own attractions, and then admires her. He loved her — praised be His name — before there was anything about her to admire. This is divine. "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He has adorned her with His own excellencies, so there is now nothing to offend His eye or grieve His heart. … In admiring His bride, though she is still in the wilderness, He is true to Himself, for she is perfect in His own perfectness. Rebekah was enriched and adorned with the jewels of Isaac, long before she reached his mother's tent.
Love put into words
The ornaments recall a scene in Ezekiel, where God describes decking out the city He had chosen. Writers point out that Christ does not keep His pleasure to Himself — He says it out loud.
Hamilton SmithSo the bride was lovely in His sight, with the beauty He had put upon her; as the Lord can say through Ezekiel, "I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck" (Ezek. 16:11). Does not Christ delight to unfold His thoughts of love toward His own?
What the jewels stand for
Jewels are worn, not grown. One writer takes them as a picture of what the Spirit produces in a believer.
The Song of SolomonJewels speak to us of a beauty that is not ours naturally, but which has been given to us. So they are fitting symbols of Christian graces. These graces show in the believer's life as the fruit of the Spirit's work in the heart. They do not come from ourselves naturally. The power of the Spirit of God produces them. When we really surrender ourselves to Christ and hand the reins of our lives over to His Spirit, our lives will take on a truly Christian character.
Gold on the neck: public honour
A gold chain was more than decoration. It marked a person out, and two men in Scripture show what it meant.
Andrew MillerA chain of gold, as we know, is the sign of promotion, high favour and dignity, as in the case of Joseph and Daniel… He has been admiring His bride — her "rows of jewels", her "chains of gold".
The older translation quoted above says "rows of jewels" and "chains of gold". The ESV says "ornaments" and "strings of jewels".
Graces now, glory later
What she wears in this verse is not the last word. One writer draws the line between the two stages in a single sentence.
Hamilton SmithHere Christ puts His graces upon His spouse; in heaven He will put His glory upon her.
Applied to the believer, and to Jerusalem
Commentators read the Song on two levels — as a description of Christ's love for His own now, and as a picture of a coming day for the Jewish nation. One exposition works through the personal application first and then adds the prophetic one.
The Song of SolomonBut the time will come when Jerusalem, repentant and rejoicing in the Lord's forgiveness, will again be exalted at the head of the nations. What a joy that will be to His heart! What a triumph for His grace, when He crowns Jerusalem again with royal glory — the fruit of His redemption and of the work of His Spirit in the heart.
Summary
- Love first. He loved her before there was anything in her to admire — the affection came before the beauty, not after it.
- Given, not grown. The jewels picture graces we do not grow ourselves. They are the fruit of the Spirit's work in a life given over to Him.
- Worn where seen. Cheeks and neck are on show. What He works inside becomes visible in Christian character.
- Honour attached. A gold chain marked promotion and dignity, as with Joseph and Daniel. His gift carries public honour.
- Glory to follow. Now He puts His graces on His own. In heaven He puts His glory on them. Writers add that the same grace will one day crown a repentant Jerusalem.