How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice! Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon. (Song of Songs 4:10-11)

The character of this love is complicated by the Hebrew. The love referenced is dowd.

This is derived from a root meaning to boil. Certainly the lover's passion for the beloved seems hot.

But it is a masculine noun. The lover is evidently being self-referential. Perhaps even, "How delightful is your lover..."

The nature of this love is especially curious because in the previous chapter the beloved seeks "him whom my soul loves" using the Hebrew 'ahab.

'Ahab can encompass a breadth of emotions, but is often used for sexual love.

Why now does the lover speak of a love that scripture most often translates as avuncular?

What is the difference? What are we to discern?