Song of Songs 4:1-15

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.

10 How delightful your love is, my sister, my bride. Your love is much better than wine,^[p] and the fragrance of your perfume than any balsam.

11 Your lips drip [sweetness like] the honeycomb, my bride.^[q] Honey and milk^[r] are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

12 My sister, my bride, [you are] a locked garden- a locked garden^[s] and a sealed spring.^[t]

13 Your branches are a paradise^[u] of pomegranates with choicest fruits,^[v] henna with nard-

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices.

15 [You are] a garden spring, a well of flowing water^[w] streaming from Lebanon.

Song of Songs 4:1-15 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
• [p]. Sg 1:2,4
• [q]. Pr 5:3
• [r]. Ex 3:8,17; Nm 14:8; 16:13,14
• [s]. Other Hb mss read locked fountain
• [t]. 1 Kg 21:8; Est 8:10; Jb 9:7
• [u]. Or park, or orchard
• [v]. Sg 7:13
• [w]. Gn 26:19; Lv 14:5; Jr 2:13