Song of Solomon 4King James Version
He praises her body, part by part, in imagery of gardens and flocks. Her eyes are doves. Her teeth are like a flock of sheep newly shorn. Her neck is like the tower of David. Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
The bridegroom delivers an extended praise of the bride's body from head to chest, using lush imagery from the landscape: goat flocks on Gilead, pomegranates, tower of David, twin fawns among lilies. He declares her spotless and calls her from Lebanon. She has ravished his heart with a single glance. He praises the taste of her kisses, the scent of her garments, and describes her as an enclosed garden whose spices he longs to enter. She opens the garden and invites him in.
To be fully seen and named by someone who loves you is not exposure but celebration. The beloved's body becomes the entire landscape.
verse: "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." (4:9), A single glance, one piece of jewelry: the beloved is undone by the smallest detail, which is how actual desire works.
The imagery pulls from all of Canaan's landscape: Gilead's hillside goat herds, Lebanon's mountain ridges, Amana and Shenir and Hermon, lion dens, pomegranate orchards. The beloved is geographically enormous and wholly present at the same time. A garden of spikenard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon, and frankincense closes the chapter.
The bridegroom speaks the entire chapter until the final verse. The bride closes with an invitation. The daughters of Jerusalem are implied as audience for the praise. The bride is called both sister and spouse, a term of covenantal intimacy.
The wasf (body-praise poem) is a recognized ancient Near Eastern literary form, unashamed and methodical. Allegorically, this chapter has been read as God's praise of Israel's beauty, or Christ's description of the church as enclosed garden: protected, fragrant, nourishing.
The bridegroom is not describing with detachment. Each image lands with accumulated weight until the garden metaphor makes the intimacy explicit. By the bride's final invitation, the emotional temperature of the chapter requires no commentary.
1Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
2Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
3Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
4Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
5Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
6Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
7Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
9Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
10How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
11Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
16Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.