Song of Solomon 5:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

His cheeks are as a bed of spices, &c.— His cheeks are as a bed of spices, sweetly budding forth. Bishop Patrick supposes that the word translated lilies, alludes to a sort of lilies of a deep rich red colour, and particularly to that called by Pliny, rubens lilium, which he tells us was much esteemed in Syria. The expression of lilies dropping sweet-smelling or precious myrrh, denotes the sweetness of his conversation; and it is supposed by Sir Thomas Brown to refer to the roscid and honey drops observable in the flowers of Martagon, and inverted-flowered lilies: it is probably the standing sweet dew on the white eyes of the crown imperial, now common among us, which is here figuratively used. See his Observations, and the New Translation.