Commentary for Song of Songs 4:3

Like a scarlet thread are your lips. Beautiful to promise and to keep their promise, as the spies did to Rachav Hazonah. They said to her, “[you shall bind] this line of scarlet thread, etc.,”²⁰Alternatively, your lips were thin and red as a scarlet thread, a sign of beauty in a woman. (Metzudas Dovid) and they kept their promise.²¹Yechezkeil 33:30.

And your speech. Your speech, and this is from the structure of, “who speak הַנִּדְבָּרִים against you near the walls,”²²Malachi 3:16. [and as in,] “Then the God fearing men spoke נִדְבְּרוּ,”²³See Rashi in Maseches Avodah Zarah 30b. parlediz in O.F.

"That you shall accept from them": Not donation of grain, wine, and oil, but gold, silver, and bronze. The Blessed, Holy One said: I set up thirteen things for you in Egypt; you, too, should offer thirteen. The thirteen which [God] did in Egypt are written down by Ezekiel: "I clothed you with embroidered garments, and gave you sandals of dolphin leather to wear, and wound fine linen about your head, and dressed you in silks. I decked you out in finery and put bracelets on your arms and a chain around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head....the choice flour, the oil, and the honey, which I had provided for you to eat" (Ezekiel 16:10-12, 19) -- which come to thirteen. You, too, should offer me thirteen things: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and crimson yarns; fine linen, goats’ hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting" (Exodus 25:4-7).....

Your cheeks. This is the upper part of the face, called pomels in O.F., next to the eyes. And in the language of the Talmud, it is called “ the pomegranate of the face.”²⁴‘רקתך’, from ‘רק’, meaning empty; see Bereishis 37:24. It resembles the split half of a pomegranate from the outside, which is red and round. This is a praise in terms of a woman’s beauty. Our Rabbis explained the allegory as follows: Even the worthless²⁵See Verse 1 above. ones רֵיקָנִים among you are full of mitzvos as a pomegranate.²⁶Iyov 35:11.

From within your kerchief. From within your kerchief.