Lover
1Behold, 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.
2Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock,
which have come up from the washing,
where every one of them has twins.
None is bereaved among them.
3Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,
on which a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men.
5Your two breasts are like two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies.
6Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh,
to the hill of frankincense.
7You are all beautiful, my love.
There is no spot in you.
8Come 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.
9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes,
with one chain of your neck.
10How 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!
11Your 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.
12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden;
a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits,
henna with spikenard plants,
14spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree;
myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
15a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters,
flowing streams from Lebanon.
Beloved
16Awake, 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.
Lover
1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Friends
Eat, friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Imagine using some of the verses from this passage as pickup lines today. “Your teeth are as white as sheep… Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David…” After reading verses one through five, it is debatable as to whether the man has described someone of great beauty or a zoo! This description however, would not have been uncommon in mediteranian love poetry, and while they seem to focus on physicality the intention is not that the woman’s body actually looks like sheep or goats or pomegranates, but that each statement relates to a different aspect of the man’s life and surroundings that find new meaning in the body of his beloved.
Verses 4:8 through 5:1 are the center of the Song, believed by many to describe the wedding and consummation of marriage between the man and woman. One of the most interesting aspects of this passage, however, comes from the many symbols and images mentioned that carry much Jewish significance regarding the Temple and the Garden of Eden. Many of the fragrances and fruits mentioned would have reminded the Jewish audience of the smells and images found in the Temple. The Garden imagery is also undeniable, both as the temple was already seen as a new Garden but also in the images of trees, flowers, and fruit.
The imagery of the Garden is very significant to the Song as it illustrates to us what it looks like to be in right relationship, both in human terms as well as how we are to live in relationship with God. It is a calling back to see the world as it was intended in the beginning and not as we have made it to be. In one sense, this is a picture of heaven on earth. As Christians, we take heart in knowing that while this image will not be completed until the return of Christ, we can still live into this kind of community now in the power of the resurrection that is bringing the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.