Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
The Bridegroom describes His bride again. She had wandered from Him and returned, yet He uses the same words He used before. Two questions sit behind the picture of a broken pomegranate half hidden by her veil. Why repeat an old compliment? And what does the image say about her?
Words she had heard before
This description almost copies one already given in chapter 4. Commentators treat that repetition as deliberate, not accidental.
Andrew MillerThese same expressions occur in chapter 4, and yet we know the Holy Spirit uses no empty repetitions. Then why is this? Since they were used by the Bridegroom in speaking to His bride in the fourth chapter, she has wandered and returned. By repeating to her what He said before, He assures her heart that her beauty in His sight is unimpaired. He says nothing about her having been away from Him. Yet these expressions of His unchanged admiration will now take a deeper hold on her heart than before. Their value is increased sevenfold because of the circumstances in which they are repeated.
Praise where reproach was expected
What He leaves unsaid matters as much as what He says. He lists her beauties and never mentions her wandering. One writer compares this with the Lord's resurrection day, when Jesus met the disciples who had left Him.
Hamilton SmithWhen my heart may well feel how truly I have earned a word of reproach, how touching to be greeted with a word of appreciation. Do we not recall a scene like this on the Lord's resurrection day? His own were gathered behind closed doors and "Jesus Himself stood among them." Some of them had slept in the hour of His agony. All of them had forsaken Him in front of His enemies and fled from Him in the day of battle. We may well ask, then, will He be against them in this, the day of His victory? Ah no! The first words He speaks are "Peace to you."
The broken pomegranate: a blush
The comparison turns on the colour inside the fruit when you break it open. Writers take that red as the colour of a face that can still feel shame — a quality God's people had once lost.
Andrew MillerThe heart of the pomegranate is chosen to represent the temples of the bride. "A piece," or broken part, "of a pomegranate" is the emblem. The fruit is said to be delicious to the taste, and when broken it shows a bright red colour mingled with white. This comparison, I suppose, gives us the idea of modesty, shamefacedness, or blushing. A blessed change for the house of Jacob, whom the bride represents! What a change grace has worked! There was a time when the Lord had to say of His ancient people, "I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass" (Isaiah 48:4). Now the Lord sees in His loved one the perfection of meekness and lowly grace.
Hidden behind the veil
Translations differ here: "temples" or "cheeks," "within your locks" or "behind your veil." One writer reads the covering as a sign of her submission. He praises a blush no one is meant to see, and He looks for the covering outside and the reality inside to match.
Hamilton SmithIn contrast, the bride is marked by modesty. She can blush, so that her forehead becomes red "like a piece of pomegranate." But it is "within your locks," or as it may read, "behind your veil." Under the outward symbol of subjection there was genuine modesty. Not outward subjection and inward rebellion. Modesty found with subjection is a precious quality in the sight of Christ.
Fruit in the most visible place
Others read the image as fruit rather than colour. That takes the reader to where pomegranates appear elsewhere in Scripture: the clothing of Israel's priests.
VariousThe temples are a prominent part of the face. The pomegranates were always worn on the priest's robe between the bells. They are typical of the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; see Galatians 5:22-23). The pomegranates always sat together with bells on the priest's robe. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit must always be prominent whenever there is a testimony that rings out for the Lord.
Summary
- Wandering — she had left Him and come back; He speaks these words to a heart He has restored.
- Welcome — He never mentions the failure. He praises where blame was deserved, as the risen Jesus said "Peace to you" to men who had fled.
- Words — the repeated praise tells her that her beauty in His sight is unimpaired. It carries sevenfold weight because of when He says it.
- Modesty — the red of a broken pomegranate pictures a blush. A people once as hard as brass now shows meekness.
- Veiled fruit — hidden behind her locks, her modesty is real and not for show. The pomegranate also points to the fruit of the Spirit that should back every testimony.