Song of Solomon 4

Look at you: you are beautiful, my love. You are beautiful. Behind your veil your eyes are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down the slopes of Mount Gilead.

1Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

Note"Within thy locks" translates a Hebrew word most scholars take to mean a veil rather than hair. Gilead was hill country east of the Jordan River, known for grazing. The flocks there were largely black-haired goats, and a herd picking its way down a slope in a long dark stream is the picture behind the comparison.

2Your teeth are like a flock of freshly shorn sheep coming up from being washed. Every one of them has its twin, and not one is missing.

2Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

NoteSheep were washed before or after shearing, so a freshly shorn, freshly washed flock was startlingly white. "Every one bear twins" means each ewe has a matching pair, the teeth are even and matched, upper to lower. "None is barren" here means none has lost her young: no gaps in the row.

3Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Behind your veil, your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.

3Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

Note"Comely" in 1611 English meant lovely or attractive. The Hebrew word rendered "speech" is literally "mouth," so the praise covers both how she speaks and how her mouth looks. The flesh of a pomegranate is a deep translucent red, which is what the sliced fruit contributes to the image of her brow.

4Your neck is like the tower of David, built to hold weapons. A thousand small shields hang on it, all of them the shields of strong soldiers.

4Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.

NoteA "buckler" is a small round shield. Captured or ceremonial shields were hung along the walls and towers of a fortress as a display of strength and victory; the picture is of a straight, ornamented neck hung with rows of jewelry. The tower of David is otherwise unknown to us.

5Your two breasts are like two fawns, the twin young of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies.

5Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

Note"Roes" is the 1611 word for small deer; the Hebrew animal is a gazelle. Twin fawns were proverbial for a matched, delicate pair.

6Before the day breaks and the shadows run away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

6Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

Note"Until the day break, and the shadows flee away" is an idiom for the whole night, ending at dawn when night shadows vanish. Myrrh and frankincense are fragrant tree resins, imported and expensive, used as perfume and incense. No actual mountain is meant; the phrase belongs to the language of love, describing her body in the terms of the perfume trade.

7You are beautiful in every way, my love. There is no flaw in you.

7Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

Note"Spot" in 1611 English meant a blemish or flaw on the skin, not a stain or a mark of guilt.

8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Look down from the top of Amana, from the tops of Shenir and Hermon, from the dens of lions and the mountains where leopards live.

8Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

NoteLebanon is the mountainous country north of Israel. Amana, Shenir (elsewhere spelled Senir) and Hermon are peaks of the same northern range; Shenir and Hermon are two names used for the same mountain, or for parts of it. Lions and leopards genuinely lived in those uplands then, so the invitation is to come down from wild and dangerous high country.

9You have taken my heart, my sister, my bride. You took my heart with one look of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

9Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

Note"My sister, my bride" is a set term of endearment in ancient Near Eastern love poetry, Egyptian love songs of the period regularly call the beloved "sister", and does not imply blood kinship. "Ravished my heart" translates a Hebrew verb built on the word "heart"; it means to seize or carry off someone's heart. "One of thine eyes" means a single glance.

10How lovely your love is, my sister, my bride! Your love is far better than wine, and the smell of your perfume is better than any spice.

10How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "thy love" here is a plural noun meaning caresses or lovemaking, not affection in general. The same word appears in the comparison with wine in chapter 1.

11Your lips drip sweetness like a honeycomb, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue, and your clothes smell like Lebanon.

11Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

NoteHoney and milk together were a stock pairing for sweetness and plenty. Lebanon was famous throughout the region for its cedar forests, whose resinous scent is what her clothes are said to carry.

12My sister, my bride, you are a garden with a wall around it, a spring closed off, a fountain sealed shut.

12A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

NoteA walled garden and a covered well were private property in a dry country. A spring could be shut off and its cover sealed with a stamped clay seal so that only the owner had use of it; breaking the seal without right was theft. The image is of something valuable, guarded, and belonging to one person.

13What grows in you is an orchard of pomegranates with the finest fruit, along with henna and nard,

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

Note"Camphire" is henna, a shrub whose blossoms are strongly fragrant and whose leaves yield a reddish dye used on hands and hair. "Spikenard" (nard) is a costly perfumed oil made from a plant of the Himalayas and carried west by trade. "Thy plants" translates a word meaning shoots or branches, keeping the garden picture going.

14with nard and saffron, with calamus, a sweet-smelling reed, and with cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.

14Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

NoteThis is a list of luxury imports, most of them arriving by long-distance trade: saffron from crocus stigmas, calamus an aromatic cane, cinnamon bark, frankincense resin, myrrh resin, and "aloes", not the modern aloe vera plant but a fragrant wood, probably aloeswood or eaglewood from the Far East. No real garden in Israel grew all of these; the point is the extravagance of the list.

15You are a spring that waters gardens, a well of fresh flowing water, streams running down from Lebanon.

15A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

Note"Living water" is the Hebrew term for water that flows from a spring or stream, as opposed to still water standing in a cistern. It was the fresher and more valuable kind. The streams of Lebanon ran cold off snow-covered heights.

16Wake up, north wind! Come, south wind! Blow across my garden so its spices send out their smell. Let the one I love come into his garden and eat its finest fruit.

16Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

NoteThe Hebrew pronouns and verb forms show that the woman speaks here, answering the man. She calls the garden he has just described "my garden" and then hands it over as "his garden", the invitation is hers to give.