4:1-4This vivid description of a love relationship begins with a picture of love itself. Love ts “sweeter than wine”; it makes the lovers rejoice. Acts 10:9-16 teaches that what God has created and cleansed we should not misuse or call common. We can enjoy love. Ged created it as a gift to us and a delight for all our senses,
Life Application Study BibleSong of SongsChapter 4
Song of Songs 4
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1080, 1081, 1082
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
4Song of Songs 4
1like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead.
2Your teeth are as white as sheep,recently shorn and freshly washed.Your smile is flawless,each tooth matched with its twin.*
3Your lips are like scarlet ribbon,your mouth is inviting.Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranatesbehind your veil.
4Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David,jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes.
5Your breasts are like two fawns,twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
6Before the dawn breezes blowand the night shadows flee,I will hurry to the mountain of myrrhand to the hill of frankincense.
7You are altogether beautiful, my darling,beautiful in every way.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,come with me from Lebanon.
Come down* from Mount Amana,from the peaks of Senir and Hermon,where the lions have their densand leopards tive among the hills.
9You have captured my heart,my treasure,* my bride.You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes,with a single jewel of your necklace.
10Your love delights me,my treasure, my bride.Your love is better than wine,your perfume more fragrant than spices.
11Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride.Honey and milk are under your tongue.Your clothes are scentedlike the cedars of Lebanon.
12You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride,a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.
13Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranateswith rare spices—henna with nard,14 nard and saffron,fragrant calamus and cinnamon,with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes,and every other lovely spice.
15You are a garden fountain,a well of fresh waterstreaming down from Lebanon’s mountains.Young Woman
16Awake, north wind!Rise up, south wind!Blow on my gardenand spread its fragrance all around.Come into your garden, my love;taste its finest fruits.Young Man1 [have entered my garden, my treasure,* my bride!I gather myrrh with my spicesand eat honeycomb with my honey.I drink wine with my milk.
Young Women of Jerusalem
Oh, lover and beloved, eat and drink! Yes, drink deeply of your love!
Textual footnotes
- 4:8 Or Look down.
- 4:9 Hebrew my sister; also in 4:10, 12.
Life Application Notes 6 notes
4:1-7We feel like awkward onlookers when we read this intensely private and intimate exchange. In the ecstasy of their love, the lovers praise each other using beautiful imagery. Their words may seem strange to readers from a different culture, but their intense feelings of love and admiration are universal. Communicating love and expressing admiration in both words and actions can enhance every marriage.
4:2Hebrew Not one is missing; each has a twin. to the girl in all his royal splendor (3:6-11), expresses his great love for her (4:1-5), and then proposes (4:7-15). The girl accepts (4:16), and Solomon responds to her acceptance (5:1).
4:5Kedar was a nomadic community in northern Arabia. It was known for its tents that were woven from black goats’ hair.
4:12In comparing his bride to a private garden, Solomon is praising her virginity. Virginity, considered old-fashioned by many in today’s culture, has always been God’s plan for unmarried people—and with good reason. Sex without marriage is cheap. It cannot compare with the joy of giving yourself completely to the one who is totally committed to you in marriage.
4:15Solomon's bride was as refreshing to him as a garden spring. Could your spouse say the same about you? Sometimes the familiarity that comes with marriage causes us to forget the overwhelming feelings of love and bliss we shared at the beginning. Many marriages could use a course in “refreshing.” Do you refresh your spouse, or are you a burden of complaints, sorrows, and problems? Partners in marriage should continually work at refreshing each other by an encouraging word, an unexpected gift, a change of pace, a surprise call or note, or even the withholding of a discussion of some problem until the proper time. Your spouse needs you to be a haven of refreshment because the rest of the world usually isn’t.