Song of Songs 4

¹M , How beautiful you are, my friend,[#Sg 6:5–7.; #Sg 1:15.]

how beautiful you are!

Your eyes are doves

behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down Mount Gilead.

²Your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn,[#: praised for whiteness and evenness.]

that come up from the washing,

All of them big with twins,

none of them barren.

³Like a scarlet strand, your lips,

and your mouth—lovely!

Like pomegranate halves, your cheeks

behind your veil.

⁴Like a tower of David, your neck,[#Sg 7:5.]

built in courses,

A thousand shields hanging upon it,

all the armor of warriors.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns,[#Sg 7:4.]

twins of a gazelle

feeding among the lilies.

⁶Until the day grows cool[#Sg 2:17.]

and the shadows flee,

I shall go to the mountain of myrrh,

to the hill of frankincense.

⁷You are beautiful in every way, my friend,

there is no flaw in you!

⁸With me from Lebanon, my bride!

With me from Lebanon, come!

Descend from the peak of Amana,

from the peak of Senir and Hermon,

From the lairs of lions,

from the leopards’ heights.

⁹You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;[#Sg 6:5.; #: a term of endearment; brother-sister language forms part of the conventional language of love used in this canticle, the Book of Tobit, and elsewhere in poetry from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syro-Palestine.]

you have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes,

with one bead of your necklace.

¹⁰How beautiful is your love,[#Sg 1:2–3.]

my sister, my bride,

How much better is your love than wine,

and the fragrance of your perfumes than any spice!

¹¹Your lips drip honey, my bride,[#: sweet words (cf. Prv 5:3) or perhaps kisses (1:2–3). : familiar descriptions for the fertile promised land (Ex 3:8, 17; Lv 20:24; Nm 13:27; Dt 6:3).]

honey and milk are under your tongue;

And the fragrance of your garments

is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

¹²M A garden enclosed, my sister, my bride,[#Sg 6:2, 11.]

a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed!

¹³Your branches are a grove of pomegranates,

with fruits of choicest yield:

Henna with spikenard,

¹⁴spikenard and saffron,

Sweet cane and cinnamon,

with all kinds of frankincense;

Myrrh and aloes,

with all the finest spices;

¹⁵A garden fountain, a well of living water,

streams flowing from Lebanon.

¹⁶Awake, north wind![#: the same verb is used of love in 3:5. The woman may be the speaker of 16a, as it is she who issues the invitation of 16b. : the woman herself.]

Come, south wind!

Blow upon my garden

that its perfumes may spread abroad.

W Let my lover come to his garden

and eat its fruits of choicest yield.