Song of Solomon 4 KJV
The Bridegroom Praises the Bride
Song of Solomon Chapter 4: The Bridegroom Praises the Bride
The enclosed garden and sealed fountain of v.12 repurposes ancient Near Eastern fertility-goddess motifs by applying them to an exclusive human-divine covenant rather than cyclical nature religion.
1ehold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast dovesโ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.cf.
2 Thy 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.cf.
3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.cf.
4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.cf.
5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.cf.
6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.cf.
7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.cf.
8 Come 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 lionsโ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
10 How 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!
11 Thy 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.
12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
16 Awake, 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.
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Did You Know?
The enclosed garden and sealed fountain of v.12 repurposes ancient Near Eastern fertility-goddess motifs by applying them to an exclusive human-divine covenant rather than cyclical nature religion.
Verse 8โs summons from Amana, Shenir, and Hermon traces a geographic arc from the Anti-Lebanon range to the Israelite heartland, mapping the brideโs journey onto the very boundaries of Solomonโs northern empire.
The martial simile of the neck as โthe tower of David builded for an armouryโ fuses erotic description with defensive architecture, implying that the belovedโs beauty itself functions as a bulwark against chaos.
The spice catalogue of vv.13-14 inventories aromatics sourced from Arabia, India, and the Levant, revealing the textโs embedded knowledge of Solomonic trade networks while transforming commercial luxury into a metaphor for cultivated intimacy.
Only in this chapter does the bridegroom deliver an uninterrupted, extended wasf; the resulting one-sided praise anticipates later allegorical readings in which divine initiative precedes any human response.