Song of Solomon 1:16

“Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, etc.] These are the words of the church, giving back to Christ his commendation of her, and much in the same words, as more properly belonging to him than her; he calls her “my love”, she calls him “my beloved”: he says that she was “fair”; the same she says of him, with a like note of wonder, attention, and asseveration, he had prefixed to the commendation of her; suggesting, that his fairness and beauty were essential, original, and underived, but hers was all from him; and therefore he only ought to have the character: he, as man, is “fairer” than the children of men; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth, which makes him look lovely in the eyes of…”

“Behold - The church here again speaks, and retorts Christ's words; thou, and thou only art fair indeed. Pleasant - As thou art beautiful in thyself, so thou art amiable and pleasant in thy condescention to me. Bed - This seems to denote the place where the church enjoys sweet fellowship with Christ, by his spirit accompanying his ordinances. Green - Is pleasant, as that colour to the eye. Song of Solomon (Canticles) 1:17”

“1:16-17 grass is our bed . . . branches are the beams . . . firs are the rafters: The lovers imagine that their luxurious surroundings of grass and overhanging trees are their house. She does not need the royal, palatial surroundings of a king since these God-created natural surroundings are more than enough for her and her true lover. • In a number of the poems the countryside is the place of happy intimacy. The man and the woman make their bed in the great outdoors and enjoy each other’s company.”

“thou art: Sol 2:3, Sol 5:10-16; Psa 45:2; Zac 9:17; Phi 3:8, Phi 3:9; Rev 5:11-13 also: Sol 3:7; Psa 110:3 Song of Solomon (Canticles) 1:17”

“16 Behold, thou art comely, my beloved; yea charming; Yea, our couch is luxuriously green. 17 The beams of our house are cedars, Our wainscot of cypresses. If Sol 1:16 were not the echo of her heart to Solomon, but if she therewith meant some other one, then the poet should at least not have used הנּך, but הנּה. Hitzig remarks, that up to "my beloved" the words appear as those of mutual politeness - that therefore נעים (charming) is added at once to distinguish her beloved from the king, who is to her insufferable. But if a man and a woman are together, and he says הנּכך and she says הנּך, that is as certainly an interchange of address as that one and one are two and not three. He praises…”