The Sexiest Chapter in the Bible

It always surprises me when people label the Bible as prudish or anti-sex. After all, the Scriptures start out with two naked people living in a garden under the command to "be fruitful and multiply." Abraham spent most of his senior years attempting to conceive a child with his wife, Sarah. And later, Jacob worked for more than 14 years simply because he was desperate to marry Rachel--the Scriptures say those years "seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." The Bible is filled with both romance and sex!

The sexiest moment in God's Word occurs in the seventh chapter of Song of Songs, also known as Song of Solomon. Let's take a deeper look:

How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess!
The curves of your thighs are like jewelry,
the handiwork of a master.
² Your navel is a rounded bowl;
it never lacks mixed wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
surrounded by lilies.
³ Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
Song of Songs 7:1-3

See what I mean? In these verses, King Solomon is praising his new bride. His words are a response to her elaborate praise of him, including different parts of his body and personality, in chapter 5.

Notice the intimacy of Solomon's praise. He mentions her thighs, her navel, her waist, and her breasts. And he was just getting warmed up!

⁴ Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
your eyes like pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
looking toward Damascus.
⁵ Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,
the hair of your head like purple cloth—
a king could be held captive in your tresses.
⁶ How beautiful you are and how pleasant,
my love, with such delights!
⁷ Your stature is like a palm tree;
your breasts are clusters of fruit.
⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree
and take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.
Song of Songs 7:4-8

Solomon switches gears in verses 7-8. After comparing her stature to a palm tree and her breasts to clusters of fruit, he says: "I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit." He is declaring his intentions. He wants to make love with his bride.

And she responds. Take note of the next section:

⁹ Your mouth is like fine wine—
W flowing smoothly for my love,
gliding past my lips and teeth!
¹⁰ I belong to my love,
and his desire is for me.
Song of Songs 7:9-10

Solomon is the one speaking at the beginning of verse 9, but then it shifts. The "W" indicates where his wife interrupts, completing his sentence and echoing his desire. They are both talking about mouths coming together, flowing like wine past lips and teeth. The act of physical love has begun.

Starting with verse 11, the bride shares her own thoughts on their experience of making love:

¹¹ Come, my love,
let’s go to the field;
let’s spend the night among the henna blossoms.
¹² Let’s go early to the vineyards;
let’s see if the vine has budded,
if the blossom has opened,
if the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³ The mandrakes give off a fragrance,
and at our doors is every delicacy—
new as well as old.
I have treasured them up for you, my love.
Song of Songs 7:11-13

The imagery contained in these verses is not subtle. The lovers spend the night among flowers that are blooming and blossoms that are opening. The bride sings about pomegranates, which are swollen and red when ripe, and about mandrakes, which were considered the strongest aphrodisiac in the ancient world.

The same ideas are carried in the picture of "our doors" opening to every delicacy. This is a night of making love.

It's important to understand this isn't their first sexual encounter together. We know that because we've already seen their honeymoon in chapter 4. So, this is a picture of married people making love in the way God intended--treasuring each other and enjoying each other in ways "new as well as old."