A Verse-by-Verse Analysis of Song 4:1-5:1
(Part 2 of 3)
Now that we’ve looked at Song of Songs as a whole, we are going to narrow our focus. Let’s look at just one chapter of the book and do some verse-by-verse interpretation. Before we start, however, we should talk about the writing style of this book: Hebrew poetry.
Hebrew poetry is very different from most English poetry.13 It is extremely short and concise, typically written using sets of two lines that go together, and (what really makes it different) it is not required to rhyme or have a meter/rhythm. Good Hebrew poetry is as terse14 as possible, and the reader has to literally read between the lines to get the full meaning. These lines come in parallel pairs (called “bicolons”),15 and typically the second line of the pair is similar to the first but slightly different, like an echo. To make it easier to talk about, Hebrew scholars call the first line of a pair the “A colon” and the second line the “B colon.” Two parallel lines together are called a “bicolon.” Uncovering this slight difference between the two lines is the first step of reading Hebrew poetry.
13 I say “most” because there is some poetry in English that doesn’t rhyme or use any meter at all. This type of poetry would be more similar to Hebrew poetry.
14 Terse: Adj. Using the fewest words possible to say something.
15 Except when they come in triplets, then they are called “tricolons.”
Let’s walk through the poetry in Song of Songs chapter 4 using the chart below. I won’t actually write out the verses, and I’m going to move fast, so for this to make sense and not be boring you will need your Bible open to Song of Songs chapter 4, a passage typically assumed to be a marriage song between a new bride and groom. I used the ESV English translation of the Bible. Try circling the parallelism between each set of lines along with me:
| Verse | A Colon | B Colon |
|---|---|---|
| 1a | The song starts with the man speaking. The parallelism of the first bicolon is pretty obvious because the B colon is almost an exact repeat of the A colon: The man is looking at the woman (his love) and declares that she is beautiful. | The B colon repeats the A colon word-for-word, only admitting “my love.” The man is looking right at this woman and he clearly thinks she is extremely hot. |
| 1b | The A colon compares the woman’s eyes to doves, soft and beautiful to look at. | B colon tells us the man is looking at her eyes through her veil or her hair.16 |
| 1c | The hair/veil theme is continued as the man compares her hair to a flock of goats. To be honest, this doesn’t really seem like a romantic compliment. | The B colon adds that the goats are leaping down slopes, giving us the image of luscious, wavy or curly hair cascading down past her shoulders. Much more romantic. |
| 2a | The flock imagery continues. Again, I don’t raise sheep so at first this seems like a strange thing to say, but in a society that interacts with sheep a lot this would be a compliment. As sheep grow out their wool, it slowly becomes dirty and matted. A freshly shorn sheep would be neatly trimmed and pinkish-white. | The B colon adds that the sheep have just come from being washed. These teeth are extremely clean! |
| 2b | The meaning of the Hebrew here is debated. Some people translate this as “bear twins,” but it could also mean “twinning” or “matching” giving the idea that each mamma sheep has her own lamb following her. I think this second translation fits better, as each larger top tooth has a smaller bottom tooth that follows it everywhere.17 | The B colon makes the A colon really obvious, (in case you got lost thinking about a sheep and her babies). The man is complimenting the woman for not having any missing teeth. |
| 3a | The man moves from the woman’s teeth to her lips – they are red! | The word here for “mouth” could also mean “speech.”18 Since all of the other parts of the women have an entire bicolon dedicated to them, I think that makes more sense here; he’s probably still talking about her lips. Her red lips make her speech beautiful. |
| 3b | Then he moves to her cheeks, calling them “blush-red” and “smooth,” like the outside of a pomegranate.19 | Again her face is said to be behind her veil, partly hidden from view. The partial view seems to be drawing the man closer to her. |
| 4a | From her face he begins moving down; her neck is next. He calls it long and slender, like the tower of David. | He avoids the insult of calling her neck too long, instead calling it elegant when he mentions the symmetry of the stones.20 This could also be a reference to a necklace she is wearing.21 |
| 4b | The shields are likely also referring to the jewels or plating on her necklace. | The lover elaborates; these aren’t ordinary shields and this isn’t an ordinary woman. Perhaps he is likening her to a warrior, calling her a woman of valor (Prov 31:10). |
| 5 | He moves down farther and the poetry gets steamy. He starts describing her breasts and continues this description through verse 6.22 He calls them fawns (a.k.a. baby deer), perhaps referring to their softness and elusiveness. | B Colon: He elaborates and calls them twins, pointing out their symmetry.23 C Colon: This verse contains a tricolon! These two fawns are hidden among the lilies. Note that the word for ‘graze’ could also mean ‘rest.’24 |
| 6a | To breathe is to come to life, so this likely means “until morning” when the world comes back alive after the night. | Shadows flee when the sun comes up, reinforcing that the man is talking about the morning. He is about to describe what he plans to do all night until dawn. |
| 6b | Myrrh is a sweet-smelling substance that was used in perfume. A mountain of this would have a beautifully overpowering, intoxicating scent. | Frankincense was a sweet-smelling substance that was burned as incense. This pair of mountains is likely referring to the woman’s breasts.25 The man is planning to be with her all night. |
| 7 | Unsurprisingly, the man is now overwhelmed by her beauty. He takes a short break from describing his bride’s body and repeats the first verse. | He adds that he can find no flaw in her. She is perfect in his eyes. |
| 8a | Lebanon is a beautiful, forested wilderness nestled in the mountains. | The man is urging his bride to leave the wilderness and come be with him. |
| 8b | He calls her to leave the peak of Amana, a mountain of unknown location (likely in Lebanon). | He also calls her to leave the mountains of Senir and Hermon. He is naming far-off, treacherous, and rugged mountains. |
| 9 | Another tricolon: In the A colon he calls her “my sister.” In Hebrew this is a term of endearment and indicated intimacy; she isn’t actually his biological sister. | B Colon: He repeats that his heart is “captivated,” this time explaining that it only takes one glance from her. C Colon: Not only can her eyes captivate him, but so can her necklace. This could be a reference to her general beauty or to her breasts.26 |
| 10 | He repeats “my sister, my bride,” this time referring to her love for him. This is another tricolon. | B Colon: Her love is better than wine. C Colon: The smell of her oils is better than spices. “Her oils” could mean the natural scent of her body, or it could be perfume. |
| 11a | While verses 1-5 discussed her beauty, this whole section is rich with tastes and smells. Her lips taste like nectar….they must be kissing at this point. | Yep. He knows what the inside of her mouth tastes like, so they are certainly kissing. Nectar, milk, and honey: all sweet, soothing, liquid substances. |
| 11b | He switches back to how she smells, this time describing her clothes. | Her clothes smell like a forest in Lebanon, which is known for its cedar trees (Lebanon is a theme, possibly referring to the wild beauty it contains). This would be a naturally sweet, earthy smell. |
| 12 | The man compares his bride to a locked garden (notice that he repeats “my sister” again; this is repeated throughout the whole book). | You typically don’t lock up water sources or gardens, so this is odd. Let’s step back and look at the flow of the song: He described her body, called her to come be with him, described kissing her, and then the smell of her clothes. However, at this point he has run into a problem; he doesn’t yet have permission to go any further. |
| 13a | The colons are hard to identify at this point; the man is bursting with descriptions of smells and tastes. He is clearly really excited. “Shoots” means “to send out weapons;” this is a reference to her body, which he doesn’t yet have full access to. He starts by comparing her to an orchard of pomegranates. | He elaborates; not just pomegranates, but all of the best fruit. He can’t wait to be with her. |
| 13b-14a | Henna is a dye used to decorate the skin for special events (like weddings) and nard is an expensive perfume (it smells musky and floral). | Nard is repeated, and saffron is added to the list. Saffron is a spice that tastes sweet and floral. |
| 14b | Calamus is wild grass that tastes sweet with hints of ginger, and the man combines it with cinnamon. | Frankincense is added to the list; he seems to be listing all of his favorite tastes and smells in his efforts to describe her: Sweet, gingery, cinnamon spice with hints of pine and orange. |
| 14c | The list of smells and tastes continues: sweet myrrh and floral aloe. | He concludes that she smells of all the best spices. |
| 15 | A garden produces food and grows flowers, and a well contains life-giving water. Being with her gives life to the man. | The water in the well isn’t stagnant, it is flowing and clean like the rivers found in Lebanon. |
| 16a | Some believe this verse is spoken by the man, but the Hebrew indicates that all of verse 16 is linked. The woman has started to speak, responding to the man.27 She calls to the north wind to “awake.” This links to verses in previous chapters where she had said that love should not be awakened (Song 2:7, 3:5); she is calling her love for the man to wake up. | She also calls to the south wind. At this point, her love for the man is very awake. |
| 16b | Her love is blowing through her garden (her body). | The spices her beloved was listing are abundant. |
| 16c | She invites her man to come be with her; she is unlocking her garden. | Not only can he enter her garden, but he can also enjoy it fully. She has given him full access. Note how the poetry never actually says “they had sex”? That is what the woman is inviting the man to do in this verse, but the poetry keeps it subtle and never goes into more detail. |
| 5:1a | The poem concludes with the man speaking again. He is talking in the past tense now, about what has already happened. He went to his garden. Notice that the garden is his garden now; he isn’t locked on the outside anymore. | “My sister, my bride” reminds us, in case we forgot, that the ‘garden’ is the woman. |
| 1b | He gathered. | B Colon: He ate C Colon: He drank. He has enjoyed all of the tastes and smells. Yes, they definitely had sex. |
| 1c | This could be the man and women speaking together, or the guests at their wedding rejoicing. Eat and drink, they command. | The last colon emphasizes drinking. Don’t just drink, but be drunk on love. This is how a married couple should be when they are together. |
Questions for Consideration:
- What stood out to you after reading and studying chapter 4 of Song of Songs? Did anything surprise you? Why?
- Did you see any additional parallels as you read along?
- After reading this, what are some things you believe the passage tells us about who God is and what he cares about?
Ok, so what’s the point? I’m not married. How can I apply Song of Songs? Click here for Song of Songs Part 3:
Footnotes with Ray 