Lovemaking in the Song of Songs

1. The attraction and articulation of beauty

Said about her

Dark am I, yet lovely (1:5)
I liken you, my darling, to a mare (1:9)
Your cheeks are beautiful with ear-rings (1:10)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (1:15)
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys (2:1)
..show me your face...(2:14)
How beautiful you are, my darling! (4:1)
Your eyes behind your veil are doves (4:1)
Your hair is like a flock of goats (4:1)
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn (4:2)
Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon (4:3)
Your mouth is lovely (4:3)
your temples...like the halves of a pomegranate (4:3)
Your neck is like the tower of David (4:4)
Your two breast are like two fawns (4:5)
You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes (4:9)
... there is no flaw in you (4:7)
You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah (6:4)
...lovely as Jerusalem (6:4)
...majestic as troops with banners (6:4)
Who is this that appears like the dawn? (6:10)
Your graceful legs are like jewels (7:1)
Your navel is a rounded goblet (7:2)
Your waist is a mound of wheat (7:2)
Your breasts are like two fawns (7:3)
Your neck is like an ivory tower (7:3)
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon (7:4)
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon (7:4)
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel (7:5)
Your hair is like royal tapestry (7:5)
Your stature is like that of the palm (7:7)
...your breasts like clusters of fruit (7:7)

Said about him

How handsome you are, my lover! (1:16)
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover (2:3)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
My lover is like a gazelle or a young stage (2:9)
...the one my heart loves (3:1)
My lover is radiant and ruddy (5:10)
His head is purest gold (5:11)
His hair is wavy (5:11)
His eyes are like doves (5:12)
His cheeks are like beds of spice (5:13)
His lips are lilies (5:13)
His arms are rods of gold (5:14)
His body is like polished ivory (5:14)
His legs are pillars of marble (5:15)
His appearance is like Lebanon (5:15)
His mouth is sweetness itself (5:16)
He is altogether lovely (5:16)
This is my lover, this is my friend (5:16)

2. Erotic arousal

The five senses are brought into play in the Song:

Taste

His fruit is sweet to my taste (2:3)
...and taste its choice fruits (4:16)
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey (5:1)
...your mouth like the best wine (7:9)

Smell

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes (1:3)
...my perfume spread its fragrance (1:12)
...perfumed with myrrh and incense (3:6)
...the fragrance of your perfume (4:10)
...the fragrance of your garments (4:11)

Touch

...your love [caresses] is more delightful than wine (1:2)
His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me (2:6; also at 8:3)
I held him and would not let him go (3:4)

Hearing

... let me hear your voice (2:14)
Listen! My lover is knocking (5:2)
You who dwell in the gardens ...let me hear your voice! (8:13)

Sight

Do not stare at me because I am dark (1:6)
...show me your face (2:14)
You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes (4:9)
Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me (6:5)
...come back, that we may gaze on you! (6:13)

A general state of arousal underlies the following verses:

...your love is more delightful than wine (1:2)
...resting between my breast (1:13)
...his fruit is sweet to my taste (2:3)
I am faint with love (2:5)
...he browse among the lilies (2:16; also at 6:3)
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle, or like a stag on the rugged hills (2:17)
I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense (4:6)
You have stolen my heart (4:9)
...my heart began to pound for him (5:4)
...my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock (5:5)
Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim? (6:13)
I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit (7:8)
The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at out door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you (7:13)
I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates (8:2)
Under the apple tree I roused you (8:5)

Kissing is alluded to in several places:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (1:2)
He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb (4:11)
His mouth is sweetness itself (5:16)
...your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth (7:9)
I would kiss you, and no-one would despise me (8:1)

A state of undress:

Your graceful legs (= rounded thighs) (7:1)
Your navel (lit., vulva) (7:2)
Your waist (lit., belly) (7:2)
Your breasts (7:3)

3. Who initiates?

The woman's initiatives

Let him kiss me (1:2)
Take me away with you (1:4)
Tell me, you whom I love (1:7)
...turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle (2:17)
I looked for the one my heart loves (3:1)
I will get up now and go about the city (3:2)
I will search for the one my heart loves (3:2)
Let my lover come into his garden (4:16)
I arose to open for my lover (5:5)
Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages (7:11)
...there I will give you my love (7:12)
I would kiss you (8:1)
Under the apple tree I roused you (8:5)
Come away, my love (8:14)

The man's initiatives

He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me (2:10)
...show me your face (2:14)
Come with me from Lebanon (4:8)
My lover is knocking! (5:2)
I will climb the palm tree: I will take hold of its fruit (7:8)

4. The times of intimacy

...resting (= spending the night) (1:13)
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee (2:17)
Let us spend the night in the villages (7:11)
Let us go early to the vineyards (7:12)

5. The places of intimacy

Let the king bring me into his chambers (1:4)
...where you rest your sheep at midday (1:7)
The beams of our house are cedars, our rafters are firs (1:17)
He has taken me to the banquet hall (2:4)
...over the hills (2:8-13)
...in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding-places on the mountainside (2:14)
I...brought him to my mother's house (3:4)
...let us go the countryside (7:11)
I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house (8:2)
Under the apple tree (8:5)
You who dwell in the gardens (8:13)

6. Consummation

Let my lover into his garden and taste its choice fruits (4:16)
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride (5:1)
...there I will give you my love (7:12)

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