1. Song of Solomon 5:5 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why is the young woman’s hand dripping with myrrh when she rises to open?

Song of Solomon 5:5 (ESV)

5 I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

On all levels of reading, we see that her mind is changed. She now desires to be in the embrace of the young man. Where earlier he was wet with the dew of the night, now she is dripping with myrrh.1

Hands dripping with myrrh is a continuation of the metaphor of her sexual excitement as she opens the door for him.2 The myrrh is concentrated on the handles of the bolt because that is the point at which their two hands come closest to touching in this dream-like scene.3