Song of Songs 4:13

13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,

Song of Solomon 4:13 in Other Translations

13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,

13 Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates with rare spices— henna with nard,

13 Body and soul, you are paradise, a whole orchard of succulent fruits - Ripe apricots and peaches, oranges and pears; Nut trees and cinnamon, and all scented woods;

Song of Songs 4:13 Meaning and Commentary

Song of Solomon 4:13

Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates
These plants are the members of the church, true converts, believers in Christ; pleasant plants, plants of renown, planted in the church by Christ's heavenly Father, and shall never be plucked up; or, thy gardens, as it may be rendered ^F14; particular churches, well taken care of and watered; these make an orchard, or are like one, even a paradise, as the word ^F15 signifies: it is generally thought to be a Persic word; see ( Nehemiah 2:8 ) ; but Hillerus ^F16 derives it from (rrp) , to "separate", it being a garden, separated and enclosed as before; one like Eden's garden, exceeding pleasant and delightful: and not like an orchard of any sort of trees, but of "pomegranates", of which there were plenty in Canaan, hence called a "land of pomegranates", ( Deuteronomy 8:8 ) ; many places in it had their names from thence, ( Joshua 15:32 ) ( 19:13 ) ( 21:24 ) . To which believers in Christ may be compared, for the various sorts of them ^F17, for their largeness, fruitfulness, and uprightness; saints have gifts and grace, differing from one another as to size, but all pomegranates, trees of righteousness; some are larger, and excel others, are full of all the fruits of righteousness; but all are, more or less, fruitful and upright in heart: and so the saints of the higher class may be here designed, as those of a lower are by other trees and spices after mentioned; with pleasant fruits;
that are valuable, precious, and desirable, of which an enumeration follows: camphire, with spikenard;
or "cypresses", or "cyprusses with nards" {r}; both in the plural number: the former may intend cypress trees, so called on account of their berries and fruits growing in clusters; see ( Song of Solomon 1:14 ) ; and the latter, because there are different sorts of them, as "nardus Italica", "Indica", and "Celtica": to these saints may be compared, because pleasant and delightful, of a sweet smell, and rare and excellent.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 Vid. Guisium in Misn. Sheviith, c. 2. s. 2.
F15 (odrp) (paradeisov) , Sept. "paradisus", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Marckius, Michaelis.
F16 Onomastic. Sacr. p. 291.
F17 Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 19.
F18 So Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Song of Songs 4:13 In-Context

11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

12 You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.

15 You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.

Cross References

• 1. Song of Songs 6:11; Song of Songs 7:12
• 2. Song of Songs 1:14