Song / The Beloved's Bridal Ode: A Detailed Praise

The Beloved's Bridal Ode: A Detailed Praise

Song 4:1-16

Chapter 4

¹ Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved; behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that glided down from Mount Gilead. ² Your two are like a flock of the shorn ones that have gone up from the washing, all of them paired, and there is not one lacking among them. ³ Like a thread of scarlet, your lips and your words are beautiful; like a slice of the pomegranate, your temples behind your veil. ⁴ Your neck is like the Tower of David, built with courses of stone; a thousand shields hang on it, all the shields of the mighty men. ⁵ Your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a gazelle that graze among the lilies. ⁶ Until the day blows cool and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. ⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my companion, and there is no defect in you. ⁸ Come with me from Lebanon, bride. Come with me from Lebanon. Come, look from the head of Amana, from the head of Senir and Hermon, from the lairs of lions, from the mountains of leopards. ⁹ You have hearted me, my sister, my bride; you have hearted me with one from your eyes, with one necklace from your necklaces. ¹⁰ How beautiful are your loves, my sister, my bride! How good are your loves—better than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than all spices! ¹¹ Your lips drip honeycombs, O bride; honey and fat are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your shalmoṯêkā is like the fragrance of Lebanon. ¹² A locked garden, my sister, my bride; a locked spring, sealed from an eye. ¹³ Your shoots are a pardes of pomegranates, with fruit of excellences, cultic coverings, with nards. ¹⁴ nard and crocus, cane and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all heads of perfumes. ¹⁵ A spring of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. ¹⁶ Awake, north wind, and come, south wind. Blow upon my garden—let its spices flow. Let him come to his garden and eat its excellent fruits.