Song of Songs 4:1-9

Man

1 How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful! Behind your veil,^[a] your eyes are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn [sheep] coming up from washing, each one having a twin, and not one missing.^[b][c]

3 Your lips are like a scarlet cord,^[d] and your mouth^[e] is lovely. Behind your veil, your brow^[f] is like a slice of pomegranate.^[g]

4 Your neck is like the tower of David,^[h] constructed in layers. A thousand bucklers are hung on it- all of them shields of warriors.^[i]

5 Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle,^[j] that feed among the lilies.

6 Before the day breaks^[k] and the shadows flee,^[l] I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.^[m]

7 You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon,^[n] my bride- with me from Lebanon! Descend from the peak of Amana, from the summit of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.

9 You have captured my heart, my sister,^[o] my bride. You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

Song of Songs 4:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON 4

In this chapter is contained a large commendation of the church's beauty by Christ; first, more particularly, by an enumeration of several parts, as her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, temples, neck, and breasts, So 4:1-5; and more generally, So 4:7; And having observed where he himself was determined to go, he invites her to go with him; which he enforces, partly from the danger she was exposed unto where she was So 4:6,8; and partly from the comeliness of her person and graces in his esteem; with which he was ravished, and therefore was extremely desirous of her company, So 4:9-11; And then enters into some new descriptions of her; as a garden and orchard, as a spring and fountain, So 4:12-14; all which she makes to be owing to him, So 4:15; And the chapter is closed with an order from Christ to the winds to blow on his garden, and cause the spices of it to flow out; and with an invitation of the church to Christ, to come into his garden, and relax there, So 4:16.

Footnotes

• [a]. Sg 1:15
• [b]. Lit and no one bereaved among them
• [c]. Sg 6:6
• [d]. Jos 2:18
• [e]. Or speech
• [f]. Or temple, or cheek, or lips
• [g]. Sg 6:7
• [h]. Sg 7:4
• [i]. The imagery in this v. may have been suggested by the woman's necklace.
• [j]. Sg 7:3
• [k]. Lit breathes
• [l]. Sg 2:17
• [m]. Sg 3:6; 4:14
• [n]. The Hb word for Lebanon is similar to the word for frankincense; Sg 4:6,14,15.
• [o]. A term of endearment; Pr 7:4