Song of Songs 4

EasyEnglish Bible

A new wife

The young man:

4 My dear friend, how beautiful you are!

    Yes, you are very beautiful!
Your eyes behind your veil are like doves.
Your hair is like a group of goats
    that are coming down from Mount Gilead.^[a]
²Your teeth are very white like a group of sheep.
    They are like sheep after someone has cut off their dirty wool
    and they are coming from the pool of water.
Each tooth is one of a pair.
    Not one of them is alone.
³Your lips are like bright red strings.
    Your mouth is lovely.
The sides of your face are beautiful,
    like the halves of a pomegranate.
I see them through your veil.^[b]
⁴Your neck is like the great tower of King David.^[c]
    It is round and strong.
Your necklace is like the shields of 1,000 brave soldiers
    that hang from the stones of the tower.
⁵Your breasts are perfect,
    like two young gazelles that are twins.
    They feed themselves among the lilies.
⁶I will go to the mountain of myrrh
    and the hill of frankincense.
I will stay among them until the dawn comes
    and the shadows go away.
⁷You are completely beautiful, my dear friend.
    Your body is perfect in every way.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride.
    Yes, 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.^[d]
Come away from those mountains where lions live,
    and where there are leopards.

A wedding night

⁹I love you so much that I never want to leave you,
    my sister and my bride.^[e]
When you looked at me only once
    and I saw one jewel in your necklace,
    I knew that I could never leave you.
¹⁰Your love for me is wonderful,
    my sister and my bride.
I enjoy your love even more than I enjoy wine.
Your perfume has a smell
    that is more lovely than any spice!
¹¹Your lips taste very sweet to me, my bride.
    They taste like honey that falls from the honeycomb.
    Milk and honey are under your tongue.
The smell of your clothes
    is like the cedar trees of Lebanon.
¹²My sister and my bride, you are like a garden for me
    that is locked to other men.
You are like a spring or a fountain
    that other people may not drink water from.
¹³Your body is like a special garden.
    It is full of pomegranate trees with their sweet fruit.
There are wonderful fruits to enjoy.
    There are also henna and nard.
¹⁴There are nard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon
    and many different spices.
There are myrrh, aloes
    and all the best spices.^[f]
¹⁵You are like a spring of water in a garden.
You are like a well that has fresh water.
    The water runs down from Lebanon's mountains.

The young woman:

¹⁶Wake up, north wind! Come now, south wind!
    Blow on my garden!
    Make the sweet smell of its spices move in the air.
May my lover come into his garden now!
    Let him taste its wonderful fruits!

Footnotes

4:1 Mount Gilead is a mountain in Israel, where Solomon was king.
4:3 The 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.
4:4 King David was Solomon's father.
4:8 Lebanon, Amana, Senir and Hermon are all places that are a long way away.
4:9 The man calls her ‘sister’ because now he is part of her family.
4:14 Henna, nard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon, myrrh and aloes are all things that come from plants. Some have bright colours and they may smell like perfume.