Song of Solomon 4
The Groom's Praise of the Bride's Beauty
1Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.
2Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them.
3Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.
5Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed among the lilies.
6Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
7You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.
The Enclosed Garden
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,
14spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
15a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon. Beloved
16Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.
In this chapter, the groom offers an elaborate and passionate description of his bride's beauty, using vivid imagery from nature and architecture to praise her physical attributes. He compares her to a locked garden and sealed fountain, emphasizing both her beauty and her purity. The bride responds by inviting him to come and enjoy the fruits of their love, symbolically opening her garden to him.
Context
This chapter continues the dialogue of mutual admiration that began in chapter 3, with the groom's praise now answered by the bride's invitation for consummation.
Key Themes
Outline
- 1-7The Groom's Detailed PraiseThe groom uses elaborate metaphors from nature and architecture to describe his bride's beauty from head to breast.
- 8-11Invitation and Deeper IntimacyThe groom calls his bride to come with him and expresses how she has captured his heart completely.
- 12-15The Enclosed GardenThe bride is compared to a locked garden full of precious spices and flowing waters, symbolizing her purity and richness.
- 16The Bride's ResponseThe bride invites the winds to spread her garden's fragrance and welcomes her beloved to enter and enjoy its fruits.
The Groom's Praise of the Bride's Beauty
4:1–4:7The groom's passionate praise of his bride's physical beauty, using elaborate metaphors from nature and architecture. The passage celebrates intimate love and the perfection the lover sees in his beloved.
person_contrast
David's tower appears as an architectural metaphor for the bride's neck in verse 4, uniquely transforming the warrior-king's military fortress into an ornament of feminine beauty and desire.
The Enclosed Garden
4:8–4:16An intimate dialogue between lovers using garden imagery, where the bride is described as an enclosed garden and fountain. The passage culminates with the bride's invitation for her beloved to enter her garden.
geographic
Lebanon's treacherous peaks—Amana, Senir, and Hermon with their lions' dens—transform from places of danger into symbols of the bride's inaccessible beauty that only love can reach.
Song of Solomon 4:1
Song of Solomon 6:5lexicalTurn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, that lie along the side of G…
Song of Solomon 1:15lexicalBehold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves. Beloved
Song of Solomon 5:2lexicalI was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove…
Song of Solomon 4:2
Song of Solomon 6:6lexicalYour teeth are like a flock of ewes, which have come up from the washing, of which every one has twins; not one is berea…
Song of Solomon 4:3
Song of Solomon 6:7lexicalYour temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
Song of Solomon 4:4
Ezekiel 27:11lexicalThe men of Arvad with your army were on your walls all around, and valiant men were in your towers. They hung their shie…
2 Chronicles 32:5lexicalHe took courage, built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, with the other wall outside…
2 Chronicles 17:17lexicalFrom Benjamin: Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and shield;
Song of Solomon 4:6
Song of Solomon 2:17lexicalUntil the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains o…
Song of Solomon 3:6lexicalWho is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spice…
Song of Solomon 4:8
Deuteronomy 3:9lexical(The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.)
1 Chronicles 5:23lexicalThe children of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon, Senir, and Moun…
Psalms 133:3lexicallike the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the hills of Zion; for there the LORD gives the blessing, even life forever m…
Ezekiel 27:5lexicalThey have made all your planks of cypress trees from Senir. They have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.
Song of Solomon 4:9
Judges 8:26lexicalThe weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, in addition to t…
Song of Solomon 4:10
Song of Solomon 5:1lexicalI have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with…
1 Chronicles 9:29lexicalSome of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, over the fine flour, the…
Leviticus 23:13lexicalThe meal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the…
Song of Solomon 4:11
Proverbs 5:3lexicalFor the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
Song of Solomon 5:1lexicalI have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with…
Proverbs 24:13lexicalMy son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste;
Song of Solomon 4:12
Song of Solomon 5:1lexicalI have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with…
Song of Solomon 4:14
Exodus 30:23lexical“Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred a…
Proverbs 7:17lexicalI have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Song of Solomon 3:6lexicalWho is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spice…
Song of Solomon 5:13lexicalHis cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
Esther 2:12lexicalEach young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so were the days o…
Interlinear
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Historical Context
Places and events in this chapter