God Joins His Heart with Ours

“Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.” —Song of Solomon 4:9

Let us look at the words “Thou hast ravished my heart.” This is one of the most beautiful—and, at the same time, one of the most heartbreaking—words that I have ever run across in my forty years of studying biblical Hebrew. You see, this phrase is only one word in Hebrew: livabethini (יניבבל). It comes from the root word levav (בבל), which means “heart.” The first thing to understand is that this is one of the rare cases where the double beth (בב) is used. 

The ancient Jewish sages used to teach that the beth (ב) represents not only the home but also the heart. As the saying goes, “Home is where the heart is.” A double beth (בב) represents God’s heart and our hearts joined in a love relationship. It is a picture of two hearts opening up to each other and becoming equally vulnerable.

So, what is Solomon expressing when he says to his beloved, “Livabethini” (יניבבל), or “Thou hast ravished my heart”? He is saying that with just one glance from his beloved, he has fallen hopelessly in love with her. She has stripped him of the hard shell that he had built around his heart to protect it, and he has made himself vulnerable. He is a king with the most powerful security force in the world surrounding him to protect him, yet one little peasant woman, with a mere look, has caused him to open his heart and say, “I am giving you the ability to break this heart. You have my heart in your hands—please be careful with it. There is no one to protect my heart from you; only you can protect it.”

If we are the bride of Christ, and He is our Bridegroom, does it not follow that He is saying to us, “Livabethini” (יניבבל), “You have ravished My heart”? If He is saying that, He is also indicating, “Although I am God, and although I may be to you a towering giant who seems invulnerable, I am stripping the bark off My tree; I am voluntarily making Myself vulnerable to you; I am giving you My heart. You have the ability to deeply wound My heart; no one but you can protect it, so please be gentle with My heart.”

- Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study, Vol 1 .