The Bible: Song of Solomon Chapter 4: with Audio and Commentary.

Version: World English Bible.

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Song of Solomon Chapter 4

Lover

1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved amongst them.

3 Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like David's tower built for an armoury, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.

5 Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed amongst the lilies.

6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.

7 You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.

10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!

11 Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12 My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.

13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,

14 spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,

15 a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon.

Beloved

16 Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.

Footnotes

Version: World English Bible

Audio

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Headings to Indicate Sections (Main Divisions Only)

  1. The Marriage (1:2-2:7)
    1. The Shulamite and the Virgins ready for the Wedding (1:2-6)
    2. The Bride and the Bridegroom (1:7-2:6)
    3. The Voice of the Singer - Wisdom (2:7)
  2. The Betrothal (2:8-7:9)
    1. Memories of the Wooing (2:8-3:5)
    2. The Voice of the Singer: Wisdom (3:5)
    3. The Actual Betrothal (3:6-4:15)
    4. Experiences Following Betrothal (5:2-7:9)
  3. The United Life (7:10-8:14)
    1. The Bride (7:10-8:3)
    2. The Voice of the Singer - Wisdom (8:4)
    3. The Bride and Bridegroom (8:5-8:14)

Song of Solomon Chapter 4 Commentary

Chapter Outline

  1. Christ sets forth the graces of the church. -- (Song 4:1-7)
  2. Christ's love to the church. -- (Song 4:8-15)
  3. The church desires further influences of Divine grace. -- (Song 4:16)

Song 4:1-7

If each of these comparisons has a meaning applicable to the graces of the church, or of the faithful Christian, they are not clearly known; and great mistakes are made by fanciful guesses. The mountain of myrrh appears to mean the mountain Moriah, on which the temple was built, where the incense was burned, and the people worshipped the Lord. This was his residence till the shadows of the law given to Moses were dispersed by the breaking of the gospel day, and the rising of the Sun of righteousness. And though, in respect of his human nature, Christ is absent from his church on earth, and will continue to be so till the heavenly day break, yet he is spiritually present in his ordinances, and with his people. How fair and comely are believers, when justified in Christ's righteousness, and adorned with spiritual graces! when their thoughts, words, and deeds, though imperfect, are pure, manifesting a heart nourished by the gospel!

Song 4:8-15

Observe the gracious call Christ gives to the church. It is,

  1. A precept; so this is Christ's call to his church to come off from the world. These hills seem pleasant, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards.
  2. As a promise; many shall be brought as members of the church, from every point. The church shall be delivered from her persecutors in due time, though now she dwells among lions, Ps. 57:4. Christ's heart is upon his church; his treasure is therein; and he delights in the affection she has for him; its working in the heart, and its works in the life. The odours wherewith the spouse is perfumed, are as the gifts and graces of the Spirit. Love and obedience to God are more pleasing to Christ than sacrifice or incense. Christ having put upon his spouse the white raiment of his own righteousness, and the righteousness of saints, and perfumed it with holy joy and comfort, he is well pleased with it. And Christ walks in his garden unseen. A hedge of protection is made around, which all the powers of darkness cannot break through. The souls of believers are as gardens enclosed, where is a well of living water, John 4:14; 7:38, the influences of the Holy Spirit. The world knows not these wells of salvation, nor can any opposer corrupt this fountain. Saints in the church, and graces in the saints, are fitly compared to fruits and spices. They are planted, and do not grow of themselves. They are precious; they are the blessings of this earth. They will be kept to good purpose when flowers are withered. Grace, when ended in glory, will last for ever. Christ is the source which makes these gardens fruitful; even a well of living waters.

Song 4:16

The church prays for the influences of the blessed Spirit, to make this garden fruitful. Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. The blessed Spirit, in his work upon the soul, is as the wind. There is the north wind of conviction, and the south wind of comfort. He stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good. The church invites Christ. Let him have the honour of all the garden produces, and let us have the comfort of his acceptance of it. We can invite him to nothing but what is his own already. The believer can have no joy of the fruits, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ. Let us then seek to keep separate from the world, as a garden enclosed, and to avoid conformity thereto.

From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.