Translation
Your lips drip
Go to footnote numberhoney
Go to footnote numberjust like the honeycomb,
Go to footnote numbermy bride;
Go to footnote numbermilk and honey
Go to footnote numberare under your tongue.
Go to footnote numberThe scent of your garments
Go to footnote numberis like the scent of LEBANON.
Paraphrase
When you speak to me it revives me, our discourse is sweet, my very dear one;
prosperity and abundance come when you speak.
What emanates from the visible part of your life
is PURE, elegant, beautiful and refreshing.
Footnotes
1: "drip"
It is no accident that this verb is used in conjunction with the lips. It comes from a root meaning “to ooze,” and it was used to communicate “dripping, speaking or prophesying.” It was a repeated action that was slow, consistent and persistent. It is employed elsewhere of the seduction of a prostitute who over and over again tries to seduce a man and finally succeeds. It sometimes carries the meaning of prophecy because God speaks to us over and over again in small messages; He does not give us the full load all at once because we could not handle it. While the imagery utilized here is a picture of honey, the imagery is applied to the tongue (meaning speech), and the verb used applies to both the tongue and the honeycomb.
The name Taphath comes from this word. That was the name of the older daughter born to Solomon by the Shulammite (according to my suppositions).
2: "honey"
The word “sweetness” does not occur in the Hebrew, instead the reader is required to assume something should be added, and that something is going to be that which the honeycomb drops or drips. Hebrew often leaves things unstated and the reader must figure it out from context. Here it is quite easy; your lips drip that same stuff that the honeycomb drips. There is only one possible answer—honey.
Re: the imagery: Sweetness is satisfying and revives the spirit. Think of the time when Jonathan ate just a bite of honey and “his eyes brightened” (I Sam 14:29).
3
Honey was a representation to them of sweet discourse. Honeycomb was the same symbol as honey.
4
The word Bride emphasizes the closeness of the relationship.
5
Milk and honey, when mentioned together, were a reference to abundance and prosperity, milk representing the basics and honey the sweet pleasures of life.
6
The tongue was the instrument of speech.
7
Garments, on the most basic level, are a covering. Therefore they are what people see of us. People got to know someone by their covering, their garment. They could also be a reference to that layer of protection against the elements which one carried with him always.