What Does Song of Solomon 5:16 Mean?
His palate is sweetness; all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.THE KEY
The verse makes love something tasted: his mouth is sweetness, and the whole of him is worthy of desire.
THE MEANING
The speaker’s attraction is embodied: his mouth tastes sweet, and his whole presence draws desire. She names him both beloved and friend, holding intimacy and companionship together. Her words make affection a present act of recognition: “This is my beloved.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that desire and friendship must be separate: the same person is named both beloved and friend.
THE ROOT
מַחֲמַדִּים
maḥămaddîm
GROWS FROM
חמד
To desire, take pleasure in, or find desirable.
The word is a plural form often rendered “desirable things,” so “altogether lovely” names more than outward appearance: all of him is desirable. This root holds both the act of longing and what is treasured, joining attraction to value.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire or take pleasure in.
חָמַד
The verb names the longing awakened by what is perceived as desirable.
ḥemdah: A desirable or precious thing.
חֶמְדָּה
This branch names what is treasured, echoing the beloved as the one desired.
מַמְתַּקִּים
mamtaqqîm
GROWS FROM
מתק
To be sweet or pleasant to taste.
The word is plural: his palate is literally “sweetnesses,” turning attraction into a tasted experience rather than an abstract verdict. The same root describes waters becoming sweet, making sweetness something encountered on the tongue.
ALSO GROWS
matoq: Sweet.
מָתוֹק
The adjective gives the quality that the beloved’s palate carries in this verse.
matak: To be or become sweet.
מָתַק
The verb appears when bitter waters become sweet, showing the root’s link to a change experienced through taste.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete; wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries shalom, wholeness, in a dual ending: two wholenesses. The speaker names her beloved before the daughters of this name, voicing intimate delight within an image of shared wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch gives the name its resonance of wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the idea of completeness audible within the name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes recognition of worth bodily: what is desirable is also tasted as sweet.
More longed for are they than gold, than much refined gold; sweeter than honey, and the dripping of the comb.O taste and see that the LORD is good. Flourishing is the strong one who takes shelter in him.If indeed you have tasted that the LORD is good.THE THREAD
More longed for are they than gold, than much refined gold; sweeter than honey, and the dripping of the comb.The Hebrew verse uses the same desire root, חמד (ḥ-m-d), as “altogether lovely,” and the same sweetness root, מתק (m-t-q), as “most sweet.” Song of Solomon joins those qualities in the beloved; Psalm 19:10 joins them in what is more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey.
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