Song of Solomon 5:14

14. His hands, etc. The rings … better as an adjective, smoothly rounded. The arms and fingers taper, preserving their fulness to the nails, which are like enamel of beryl, or chrysolite, (Hebrew, the stone of Tarshish,) now called topaz, of a clear brown yellow and of glassy lustre.

His belly This word may refer to the entire surface of the body, and the word body would more truly translate it. The sapphire of the ancients was both our true sapphire a sky-blue stone, nearly as valuable as the diamond and the lapis lazuli, a blue with yellow specks. Probably the former is here meant, and as it overlays the body, it refers to the tunic. The hue of the sapphire is admirable to relieve and vary the general picture; nor is there anything indelicate in allusion to such parts of the person as, being usually covered, keep their whiteness.