Song of Songs · 16 verses
Song of Songs 4
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The beloved begins as a garden locked, enclosed, and sealed, but by the end the beloved is invited in to taste its choicest fruits: a remarkably well-mannered breach of a fortress.
A portrait with sheep, doves, and military hardwarevv. 1–7
The lover praises the beloved from eyes like doves to hair like goats streaming down Mount Gilead, with teeth compared to newly washed sheep. The sheep are not left to wander into ambiguity: each has its twin, and not one is missing. Then the poem takes a sudden martial turn, hanging a thousand warrior-shields on the beloved’s neck, before returning to gazelles, lilies, myrrh, frankincense, and the grand verdict that there is no flaw.
From Lebanon, and from the lions’ densvv. 8–15
The lover calls the bride down from Lebanon and from the peaks of Amana, Senir, and Hermon, even from the dens of lions and mountains of leopards. One glance has captured the lover’s heart; love is better than wine, and the beloved’s speech drips sweetness like honeycomb. Yet the beloved is also a locked garden, an enclosed spring, and a sealed fountain—an aromatic orchard, a fresh-water spring flowing down from Lebanon. The poem has assembled a whole perfumed estate and then put a lock on the gate.
The garden opensv. 16
Then the winds are summoned to breathe across the garden and scatter its fragrance. After all that locking, enclosing, and sealing, the beloved invites the lover into the garden to taste its choicest fruits; the poem’s fortress has acquired a welcoming door.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Song 4:1How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
Song 4:2Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.
Song 4:3Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.
Song 4:4Your neck is like the tower of David, built with rows of stones; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.
Song 4:5Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
Song 4:6Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
Song 4:7You are altogether beautiful, my darling; in you there is no flaw.
Song 4:8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon! Descend from the peak of Amana, from the summits of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.
Song 4:9You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck.
Song 4:10How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.
Song 4:11Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
Song 4:12My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
Song 4:13Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,
Song 4:14with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.
Song 4:15You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.
Song 4:16Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 253 passages were voted onto 16 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 7Song of Songs 1:15How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
- 1Song of Songs 6:5Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.
- 7Song of Songs 4:1How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
- 12Proverbs 5:15–18Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
- 4Song of Songs 7:4Your neck is like a tower made of ivory; your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim; your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, facing toward Damascus.
- 8Deuteronomy 3:9which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—
- 12Revelation 21:27But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
- 13Song of Songs 1:14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi.
- 14Exodus 30:23“Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane,
- 16Song of Songs 6:2My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.
- 1Song of Songs 6:7Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.
- 2Song of Songs 6:6Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.
- 6Song of Songs 2:17Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
- 7Colossians 1:22But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—
- 7Ephesians 5:25–27Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
- 7Jude 1:24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—
Onward