His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires.
The bride has lost the sense of her Beloved's presence. The women of Jerusalem ask her what makes Him different from anyone else. Her answer is a portrait drawn from head to foot. Here she reaches His arms and His body — His power to work, and His feelings within.
Why the Portrait Is Drawn
This description belongs to a moment of failure, not of ease. One writer treats the whole passage as the medicine for a cooled heart:
The Christian's FriendIt is leaving your first love, if after you have known Him you do not give Him His place. You are like the Bride in Song of Solomon 5, and you are restored by dwelling on the beauties of His person. (See vv. 10-16.)
Her slip did not silence her praise. It sharpened it.
William KellyThe bride can speak openly to others about the Bridegroom's beauty. This is always her joy and her proper place. And it is not only fitting in itself. We can see how her own neglect, and the bitter result it brought, made her feel and speak His praise more fully than ever.
Hands of Gold: All He Has Done
Where the ESV has "arms" and "jewels," older translations read "hands" and "beryl," and the writers below follow them. Hands stand for work. Gold set with jewels speaks of what that work is worth and how long it lasts:
Andrew Miller"His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl." This picture can take in all the works of His hands: works of nature, providence, and grace. The gold, the ring, and the precious stones may stand for their beauty, glory, perfection, and lasting strength… But faith can now say of these jewelled hands, in the words of the loved bride, "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!" What an embrace! Happy, truly happy, are those who are folded in His everlasting arms! It is everlasting — endless, like the ring itself.
The touch of those hands showed both strength and compassion:
VariousWhat divine strength and divine compassion we see in the touch of His hands! He touched the lepers and they were cleansed. He touched the blind and they received their sight. He touched the deaf and they could hear. He touched the funeral bier and the dead arose… And above all, what divine perfection we see in His work on the cross, as He hung there by the nails in His hands, looking weak.
The Ring: Power Moved by Love
A ring carries two meanings at once, and both belong to Christ:
Hamilton SmithThe ring is the symbol of authority (Gen. 41:42; Esther 3:10), and the sign of love (Luke 15:22). People showed their hatred of Christ by nailing His hands of love to a cross. But the believer is glad to know that all power is in the hands of Christ. And love moves the hand that holds that power.
The beryl in those rings is read as the stone of things that hold:
VariousThe beryl is a precious stone of enduring substance. It is mentioned in Ezekiel 1:16; 10:9… The wheels here represent God's government or overruling providence which goes on without deviating in its course, even when all that God has established in the earth seems to be overthrown.
Ivory and Sapphires: What Is Inside Him
From His arms she turns to His body. Older translations read "bright ivory" here, and call the body His "bowels" — their word for the seat of deep feeling. The picture moves from what He does to what He feels:
Andrew MillerThe deep and tender compassion within Him may be in view here… The sapphire stone is blue, and this suggests the heavenly character of His tender sympathies… Pure as the "bright ivory," deep as His inmost being, high as heaven — such is the tenderness, pity, compassion, and love of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentators differ over the sapphires. Some read them as the heavenly source of His feelings. Others read them as a picture of how precious Christ is:
Hamilton SmithThe whiteness and smoothness of the ivory may show the perfection of Christ, without blemish or spot. The sapphires may show how precious Christ is.
Love That Lasts
Ivory also lasts, and so do the affections it pictures:
An Outline of Sound WordsIvory is lasting and firm, and so are the compassions and affections of Christ. All the hatred of men could not dry up the spring of pity that rose up within Christ… Yes! "He loved them to the end," and His love will not rest until He presents the church "to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."
Summary
- Failure — A bride who had lost His company speaks this portrait; the way back is to dwell on the beauties of His person.
- Hands — Gold covers all His works in nature, providence and grace. The beryl set in it is the stone that lasts, and all things are held secure in His hand.
- Ring — Authority and love in one symbol: all power is in His hands, and love moves the hand that holds it. That embrace is endless, like the ring.
- Ivory — The body pictures His inward feelings: pure, deep, and enduring, a pity no hatred could dry up.
- Sapphires — Blue as heaven, marking His sympathies as heavenly. Other writers read the stones as a picture of how precious Christ is.