“The harlot’s lips distil honey, And her palate is smoother than oil.” Theocrit. Idyl. xx. 26:— τὸ στόμα καὶ πακτᾶς γλυκερώτερον· ἐκ στομάτων δὲ ἔῤῥεέ μοι φωνὰ γλυκερωτέρα ἢ μέλι κήρω. “More sweet my lips than milk in luscious rills, Lips, whence pure honey, as I speak, distils.” Also Idyl. i. 146, 8, 82; Homer, Iliad, i. 249; Hor. Epist. i. 19, 44. That we are to understand by distilling honey, “lovely words,” and not saliva oris osculantis, is evident from Prov. xvi. 24, where pleasant words are compared to a honeycomb, and the passage already quoted, just as slanderous words are represented as poisons, Ps. cxl. 3. And the odour of thy garments, &c. The Orientals were in the habit of perfuming their clothes with aromatics. Thus we are told that the garments of Jacob emitted a pleasant smell, Gen. xxviii. 27; Ps. xlv. 9; Rosenmüller, Orient. i. 122. In consequence of the odoriferous trees which abounded on it, Lebanon became proverbial for fragrance. Hence the prophet Hosea (xiv. 7), describing the prosperous state of repenting Israel, says ‏וְרֵיחַ לוֹ כַּלְבַנוֹן‎, and his odour shall be as that of Lebanon. This passage is sufficient to show the error of the Vulg. in rendering ‏כְּרֵיחַ לְבָנוֹן‎ by sicut odor thuris, as if it were ‏כְּרֵיחַ לְבוֹנָה‎. The perfumed attire which the Shulamite had on, and which the shepherd here praises, is evidently not the humble clothes which she had brought with her, but some splendid apparel recently given to her by the king. 12. A closed garden, &c. The trees of Lebanon, referred to at the end of the last verse, suggested this beautiful metaphor of a garden, under which the shepherd describes the unsullied purity and chastity of the Shulamite. Gardens in the East were generally hedged or walled in, to prevent the intrusion of strangers (Isa. v. 5; Joseph. De Bell. Jud. vii.). From this arose the epithet, “closed garden,” for a virtuous woman, shut up against every attempt to alienate her affections. The contrary figure is used in viii. 9; there accessibility is described as “a door,” i.e. open to seduction.