Song of Songs 4

Man

1 How beautiful you are!

My best friend that I love, you are certainly very beautiful!

Your eyes behind your veil are like doves.

Your hair is like a group of goats.

It is like goats that are coming down Mount Gilead.

4:1Mount Gilead is a mountain in the country where Solomon was king.

Man

2 Your teeth are white like a group of sheep.

They are like sheep after someone has cut off their dirty wool.

They are like sheep that are coming out of the pool of water.

Each tooth is one of a pair. Not one of them is alone.

3 Your lips are bright red.

They are bright red like a ribbon.

Your mouth is lovely.

The sides of your face are round like the halves of a pomegranate.

Your veil hides them.

4:3The woman may be wearing a veil. This may show that she has just married the man. But the word veil may mean only that her husband does not know her very well yet.

Man

4 Your neck is like the beautiful, important tower that King David built.

The shields of 1000 soldiers hang from the stones round it.

4:4King David was Solomon's father.

Man

5 Your breasts are like two young gazelles that were born to their mother on the same day.

They walk slowly among the lilies and they eat the grass.

6 Until the dawn, I will go to the mountain of myrrh.

Until the shadows go, I will go to the hill with the lovely smell.

7 You are my best friend and I love you.

I find that every part of you is beautiful.

There is no part of you that is not lovely.

8 Come with me from Lebanon.

You are my new wife.

Come with me from Lebanon.

Come down from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir.

Come down from the highest part of Hermon.

Come away from the lions' homes

and from the places in the mountains where there are leopards.

4:8Lebanon, Amana, Senir and Hermon are all places that are a long way away.

Man

9 I love you so much that I never want to leave you.

You are my sister and my new wife.

After one glance of your eyes, I knew that I wanted you more than anyone else.

I see one of the valuable stones that hang round your neck.

And then I know that you are the most valuable person to me.

4:9The man says the word ‘sister’ because now he is part of her family.

Man

10 Your love to me is certainly very good, my sister, my new wife.

It gives to me more pleasure than when I drink wine.

You have a smell that is lovelier than any spice!

11 Your lips taste sweet, my new wife.

They taste like honey that falls from the honeycomb.

Milk and honey are under your tongue.

The smell of your clothes is like the smell of Lebanon.

12 You are like a garden that you have locked up, my sister, and my new wife.

You are like a spring that someone has covered.

You are like a fountain that nobody has opened.

Water cannot rise from it.

13 Your garden is full of pomegranate trees with their sweet fruit.

There are fruits that many people like.

There are henna and nard.

14 There are nard, saffron, calamus and cinnamon.

There are many different plants that have lovely smells.

There are myrrh and aloes.

All the best spices are there.

4:14Henna, nard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon, myrrh and aloes are all things that people get from plants. They have bright colours or they taste lovely. They may have nice smells.

Man

15 You are like a fountain in a garden.

You are like a well that is full of water.

The water now comes quickly down from Lebanon.

Woman

16 Awake, north wind! Come, south wind!

Blow on my garden so that its lovely smell will move all over the place.

I really want the man that I love to come into his garden.

Let him taste the best fruits.