“A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.”
The beloved describes her lover as a sachet of myrrh that lies between her breasts, intimately close to her heart and body, suggesting that the lover's presence is both cherished and incorporated into her most intimate self. Myrrh, associated with death, funerary rites, and the anointing of bodies, carries connotations of both loss and sacred consecration, suggesting that erotic love encompasses vulnerability to loss and mortality. The placement between the breasts establishes the beloved's body as the space where the lover resides, transforming her physical form into a shrine or dwelling-place. This verse theologically suggests that love involves a kind of sacred indwelling, wherein the beloved body becomes the locus of the lover's presence and importance, resonating with incarnational theology wherein the divine indwells the material world.
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