Song of Solomon7chapter 7

The praise song here runs from the feet upward, and every comparison is a place or a piece of work. "Thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies" is the threshing floor: winnowed grain was piled into a rounded golden heap, and the harvest heap was the most welcome sight of the year.

"Thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim." Heshbon was a real town east of the Jordan in what had been Moabite territory, and a large rock-cut reservoir has been found at the site. The point is clear, still water inside a town gate.

"Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus" compares her profile to a watchtower on a height with a commanding view — strength and bearing, not size. "Thine head upon thee is like Carmel" names the ridge that runs down to the sea, the most prominent headland in the country.

"The hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries." Purple again is the murex dye — the colour of royalty, so expensive that whole coastal industries existed to produce it from crushed shellfish.

"I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof." Date palms were climbed with a rope loop around the trunk, both to pollinate the flowers by hand and to cut down the heavy clusters at harvest. It was skilled, deliberate work at height. And "the mandrakes give a smell" names a plant with a strong-scented yellow fruit that the ancient world associated with fertility and desire — the same plant Rachel and Leah bargained over.