“His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
My Notes
What Does Song of Solomon 5:16 Mean?
The Shulamite has been asked by the daughters of Jerusalem to describe her beloved — "what is thy beloved more than another beloved?" (v. 9). She has just spent seven verses cataloging his physical beauty from head to toe, and now she arrives at the summary: "His mouth is most sweet" — chikko mamtaqqim, literally his palate is sweetnesses, plural. The sweetness isn't singular. It's an overflow, multiple sweetnesses compounding.
Then the declaration: "yea, he is altogether lovely" — v'khullo machamaddim. The word machamad (desirable, precious, delightful) is pluralized — he is entirely composed of desirablenesses. There is no part of him that isn't lovely. The description is totality: not mostly lovely, not lovely in certain lights. Altogether. Every part. Without exception.
The verse closes with the most intimate pairing: "This is my beloved, and this is my friend." The Hebrew dodi (my beloved — romantic, intimate, passionate) and re'i (my friend — companion, confidant, the one you walk with). The greatest human relationship holds both: desire and friendship, passion and partnership. The Shulamite doesn't choose between the two. She claims both in the same breath. The person she burns for is the person she trusts. That's the model.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Do you have both 'beloved' and 'friend' in your closest relationship — fire and trust? Which one needs more attention?
- 2.If you applied 'altogether lovely' to God, which of His attributes would you struggle to call lovely? Why?
- 3.The Shulamite's declaration comes after careful, detailed observation. What happens when you examine God's character with that kind of attention?
- 4.What does it mean to you that the deepest love holds passion and friendship together, not as opposites but as partners?
Devotional
"This is my beloved, and this is my friend." In one sentence, the Shulamite names the two things every lasting relationship needs. Beloved — the fire, the desire, the attraction that makes your heart accelerate. Friend — the trust, the companionship, the ease of being fully known and fully comfortable. Most relationships have one or the other. The extraordinary ones have both.
But the verse also works as a description of God. The Christian tradition has read the Song of Solomon this way for centuries, and the language supports it: He is altogether lovely. Not partially. Not in His gentler moments. Altogether. Every attribute. Even the ones that frighten you — His holiness, His justice, His refusal to look away from sin — are lovely when you see them as part of the whole. The God who judges is the same God whose mouth is sweetness. You don't get one without the other.
"Altogether lovely" is the kind of statement that either sounds like empty flattery or comes from someone who has looked long and carefully enough to mean it. The Shulamite has just spent seven verses examining her beloved feature by feature. Her declaration isn't superficial. It's the conclusion of close attention. If God feels less than altogether lovely to you right now, it might not be because He's changed. It might be because you haven't looked carefully enough. Spend seven verses' worth of time examining who He actually is. The conclusion might surprise you.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
He is altogether lovely - literally, the whole of him desires or delights; the plural substantive expressing the notion…
His mouth Lit. his palate, but here as elsewhere the mouth as the organ of speech.
is most sweet Rather, is…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture