Song of Solomon is not an easy book to understand by any means. Of course that means it will be a ton of fun to dive into. People don't immediately know that this book is actually the story of an interracial marriage. We will look into that later in the article. For now, one particularly random passage which is thrown in at the end of chapter 8, describes some sisters discussing their younger sister's chest size and comparing it unfavourably to themselves.
Song of Solomon 8:8-10 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
Here we see the older sister fears for the day when her younger sibling will have to seek a suitor. Knowing how one of men's favourite features on the woman is the breasts, she fears her sister will be overlooked for other more sexy women with the expected curves in all the right places. Even today the attraction of breasts is subtly incorporated in marketing. Speaking with a professional marketer one day, I obtained inside information on why every vehicle’s RPM gauge is made so unnecessarily large so that it matches the speedometer size, even though no one ever even looks at the RPM. It so that the two gauges will look like a pair of breasts and subliminally attract a man to want to own the vehicle. McDonalds also kept its double-arches logo for a similar reason, upon advice from their marketing psychology consultant. These pair of arches, resembling the nourishment of breasts, would have a subliminal attractive influence on the customer.
9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
Comparing her sister's flat chest to a "wall" and "door," the older sibling decides to be solution-oriented and prepare a plan for the day she will need to help the sister attract a husband. Her older sisters commit to building a "palace of silver" to cover the "wall" of her flat figure. What this means is that she will help her sister financially with a proper dowry. The future male suitor will be enticed by the financial benefits of the dowry and this will cause him to not feel he is getting ripped off by the flat-chested bride being offered to him. The "boards of cedar" similarly signify luxury. The Bible speaks countless times of the "Cedars of Lebanon" as a top symbol of luxury. These are what Solomon used in constructing the Temple as well as his own personal palace. Solomon also built a "house of the forest of Lebanon" which would have been a masterpiece showcasing the beautiful cedar planks. The older sister is the one who has married Solomon in this book and thus it will be easy for her to financially assist the younger sister.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers
The older sister does not hold back in showcasing in words her well-endowed body. Boldly comparing her breasts to being "like towers," it is evident that in chest-size she is on the opposite side of the spectrum as her younger sister. One gets the picture her endowment was such that it may have caused her continuous back pain lugging the things around continuously.
"....then was I in his eyes as one that found favour."
The older sister attributes Solomon's attraction to her as being in a large part due to her enormous chest area. This caused her to become "in his eyes, as one who found favour."
Solomon's True Attraction
Solomon's bride believed she had impressed him with her large chest and that this was a core reason for his constant pursuit of her and elevation of her above other women.
So was she correct? What was Solomon's reason for choosing his bride? Was it indeed a sexual attraction to her figure and large chest or was there something deeper and more meaningful? Solomon was the wisest king after all, and it does not make sense that he would make a shallow choice for a wife. A concubine (mistress/girlfriend) maybe, but not a wife and lifelong companion.
When reading the entire text it becomes clear that the bride has a major insecurity: her dark skin.
Song of Solomon 1:5-6
5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. 6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Before meeting Solomon, the bride had to face discrimination because of her dark skin. Instead of using the term "my sisters" she says "my mother's children." It might seem like the same thing but there is a world of difference here. "My mother's children" implies that there is a different father in the picture here. This is also the reason the bride has black skin while the other brothers and sisters are a lighter shade. Her father must have been of a different race compared to the father of her step siblings which was currently married to the mother.
To punish the outcast sister, the siblings assign her all the outdoor tasks so she will be roasted in the sun constantly and her skin will become even darker, as black as possible. They think this will make her unattractive compared to them and she will be the last one chosen if a suitor wants to choose a bride from among the family.
Clearly this woman never expected the great king Solomon himself would find her attractive. She had been spending so much time thinking of herself as being undesirable that she did not consider the possibility that each man is different and perhaps the man she was meant to be with would find her dark skin very attractive. Solomon is spoken of as being "white" (5:10) but he is happy to enter what seems here to be an interracial marriage. Solomon has only compliments for the woman's skin, and helps her insecurity by lavishing continuous words of love that help his bride appreciate her natural beauty. Solomon's bride thought her only attractive attribute was her well-endowed chest. Solomon was attracted to the whole person however.
Solomon's compliments begin with her cheeks and neck (1:10) followed by her eyes (1:15), then her voice and face (2:14). In Chapter 4 her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, and neck are praised and only in verse five are the breasts finally mentioned, dead last of all the bodily attributes Solomon desires. Solomon clearly did not choose his bride based mostly on her breasts. Solomon saw and appreciated her as a whole person, enjoying the harmony of all her features when seen together. Not only that but Solomon also looked for the person on the inside, not just physical features:
In chapter 2 verse 2 Solomon says "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters."
This is a clear reference to his bride's personality and inner beauty. Solomon knows choosing a wife is dangerous and it so often seems like the field is full of "thorns" rather than legitimate choices. The difficult task of finding the rare wife material, Solomon compares to discovering a lily, his bride, among a field of thorns, the mass of women seeking Solomon only for his wealth; for what they could get from him and not thinking of any true soul connection or what they can give to make him happy.
Breasts are only one part of a woman's beauty, not the end-all and be-all of it. Sometimes modern men are afraid to admit if they don't really care so much what the breast size is, out of fear they will have their manhood called into question. A man should isolate his own heart's desire from what the culture pressures us to lust after, not just following the herd out of fear of seeming different. It is the same thing with how the culture pressures us to think a "real man" has eat a ton of bacon. Some men would want a petite woman for example, even if that figure is unpopular with others.
Song of Solomon 11:1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites
Solomon entered many interracial marriages with foreign daughters of kings. It was Solomon's preferred method of cementing an alliance with a foreign power; he would ask for the king's daughter as a pledge of good faith. Solomon especially preferred the daughter of Pharaoh. This woman would have been African and was one of Solomon's favourites. Solomon was definitely attracted to dark skin.
Solomon's most famous escapade however, is with the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba. This story is briefly mentioned in the Bible, but the Ethiopians themselves have a much more detailed version of it in their national history book, the Kebra Nagast.
There are some Jewish interpretations also claiming a union of the two and that Nebuchadnezzar was an eventual descendant of this union.
The key is the verse:
1 Kings 10:13 And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty.
The Hebrew word translated as desire in this passage is "Chephets" (Strong's #2656). "Pleasure" and "desire" (aka lust) are primary meanings. It can be said king Solomon gave the queen "all her pleasure" or satisfied "all her lust."
After seeing Solomon's wisdom, the queen requested his seed. She believed this would ensure her future linage would possess Solomon's wisdom.
The Jewish connection to Ethiopia can also be seen in how in the book of Acts an Ethiopian Eunuch was of all things reading the book of Isaiah. This would not be expected of a heathen nation, so it goes to show that Sheba really did take on a lot of Solomon's influence and perhaps his seed as well.
(The connection is so strong that the Ethiopians even claim that they are in possession of the lost Ark of the Covenant).
Body "Enhancement"
Recently there has been an unexpected meme going around. A petite Japanese woman giving a cute face. When this woman posted the picture on Twitter, the image gained 76 million views in only one week. Various captions praise her beauty sometimes with great exaggeration, and often saying they do not believe western women measure up to this standard she sets. But this woman's figure is decidedly flat. So what happened to the worshipping of large breasts or the preference for Kardashian-size big butts? Perhaps that was a fad that is going away now as well. The "ideal" body has changed so much over time and the standard shifts and changes with the culture.
The last decade has featured quite sizable behemoths in the beauty arena in an attempt to foster "diversity and inclusion" at the price of everyone's joy. unhealthiness is never attractive. It is not too much to ask to say an unhealthy weight is unattractive. Fortunately for us all, this fad seems to be going away quickly.
Skin-lightening creams are some of the worst and always have been, for one's health. Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic have been primary ingredients used in these concoctions. They are still used today by less-reputable suppliers in poor countries.
Originally, the heavy makeup and beauty products were pushed by fallen angels to make the human women more desirable to these fallen beings:
Enoch 8:1-2 "And Azazel made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. 2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways."
The fallen angels were not content with women's natural beauty and so pushed the use of heavy metals in skincare. Enoch singles out "the use of Antimony." Antimony is Sb on the periodic table and is in the same family as Arsenic, only heavier. So it seems the push for women to believe they need whiter skin was originally brought in by fallen angels such as Azazel. Doing a lot of makeup can attract the type of men who are possessed by fallen angels. The badboy type of man will be into this and have high expectation for body modification, whereas the better man just wants a more natural beauty. When feeling pressured to do some kind of body modification or use excessive makeup, just remember the origins of it and that the noticeably painted up look only attracts the lesser nature of man and the man under fallen angels influence.
Of note Jezebel loved to paint her face and she is the Bible's ultimate example of the demonic taking over a woman's nature:
2 Kings 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
When God created you, he knew what kind of future husband he meant for you to go with and he created you as attractive for that man. By trying to change yourself to follow society's shifting expectations you may attract the wrong man and repulse the right one. Some men are attracted to curvy and others to more skinny but at the end of the day, health is always attractive. A normal man has a natural attraction to the biblical type of woman with long hair, no tattoos, and a pleasant personality. To desire other than this requires corrupt cultural conditioning.