4:1 “ ①How beautiful you are, my darling,
②How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil;
Your hair is like a flock of goats
That have descended from Mount Gilead.
▷ ①Lit Behold ②Lit Behold
4:2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep
Which have come up from their watering place,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has lost her young.
4:3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
And your mouth is beautiful.
Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate
Behind your veil.
4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
Built with layers of stones
On which are hung a thousand shields,
All the round shields of the warriors.
4:5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle
That graze among the lilies.
4:6 Until ①the cool of the day
When the shadows flee,
I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh
And to the hill of frankincense.
▷ ①Lit the day blows
4:7 “You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish on you.
4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
You shall come with me from Lebanon.
You shall ①come down from the summit of Amana,
From the summit of Senir and Hermon,
From the dens of lions,
From the mountains of leopards.
▷ ①Or look
4:9 You have ①enchanted my heart, my sister, my bride;
You have ②enchanted my heart with a single glance of your eyes,
With a single strand of your necklace.
▷ ①Or stolen ②Or stolen
4:10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much ①sweeter is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than that of all kinds of balsam oils!
▷ ①Lit better
4:11 Your lips drip honey, my bride;
Honey and milk are under your tongue,
And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
4:12 A locked garden is my sister, my bride,
A locked spring, a sealed fountain.
4:13 Your branches are an ①orchard of pomegranates
With delicious fruits, henna with nard plants,
▷ ①Or park; or garden
4:14 Nard and saffron, spice reed and cinnamon,
With all the trees of frankincense,
Myrrh, and aloes, along with all the finest balsam oils.
4:15 You are a garden spring,
A well of ①fresh water,
And flowing streams from Lebanon.”
▷ ①Lit living; i.e., running
4:16 “Awake, north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
①Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
May its balsam oils flow.
May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its delicious fruits!”
▷ ①Or Drift through my