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Song of Songs · Bible in Basic English

Song of Songs 4 Bible in Basic English

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About BBE
  • Scholarly edition
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew (not verified)
  • NT: Critical text (not verified)
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Simplified language
  • 1965
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove; your hair is as a flock of goats, which take their rest on the side of Gilead. 2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep whose wool is newly cut, which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young. 3 Your red lips are like a bright thread, and your mouth is fair of form; the sides of your head are like pomegranate fruit under your veil. 4 Your neck is like the tower of David made for a store-house of arms, in which a thousand breastplates are hanging, breastplates for fighting-men. 5 Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same birth, which take their food among the lilies. 6 Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. 7 You are all fair, my love; there is no mark on you. 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon; see from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the places of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards. 9 You have taken away my heart, my sister, my bride; you have taken away my heart, with one look you have taken it, with one chain of your neck! 10 How fair is your love, my sister! How much better is your love than wine, and the smell of your oils than any perfume! 11 Your lips are dropping honey; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your clothing is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut up, a spring of water stopped. 13 The produce of the garden is pomegranates; with all the best fruits, henna and spikenard, 14 Spikenard and safron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. 15 You are a fountain of gardens, a spring of living waters, and flowing waters from Lebanon. 16 Be awake, O north wind; and come, O south, blowing on my garden, so that its spices may come out. Let my loved one come into his garden, and take of his good fruits.

Cross references (16)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Song of Songs 6:5; Song of Songs 1:15; Song of Songs 6:7; Song of Songs 2:14; Song of Songs 7:5
  2. 2 Song of Songs 6:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Colossians 1:4–6; 2 Peter 1:5–8; Deuteronomy 7:13–14
  3. 3 Song of Songs 6:7; Song of Songs 5:16; Joshua 2:18; Psalm 119:13; Proverbs 10:20–21
  4. 4 Song of Songs 7:4; Ephesians 4:15–16; Ezekiel 27:10–11; 1 Peter 1:5; Nehemiah 3:19
  5. 5 Song of Songs 7:3; Song of Songs 6:3; Song of Songs 2:16; 1 Peter 2:2; Song of Songs 8:10
  6. 6 Song of Songs 2:17; Song of Songs 4:14; Luke 1:78; Malachi 4:2; Isaiah 2:2
  7. 7 Song of Songs 1:15; Song of Songs 4:1; Ephesians 5:25–27; Jude 24; Colossians 1:22
  8. 8 Deuteronomy 3:9; Song of Songs 2:13; Psalm 45:10; 1 Chronicles 5:23; Isaiah 62:5
  9. 9 Song of Songs 5:1–2; Song of Songs 4:12; Proverbs 5:19–20; Hosea 2:19–20; 2 Corinthians 11:2
  10. 10 Song of Songs 1:2–4; Galatians 5:22; Song of Songs 7:6; Song of Songs 5:5; Song of Songs 1:12
  11. 11 Song of Songs 5:1; Hosea 14:6–7; Song of Songs 5:13; Song of Songs 7:9; Genesis 27:27
  12. 12 Proverbs 5:15–18; Revelation 21:27; 1 Corinthians 6:13; Isaiah 61:10–11; Revelation 7:3
  13. 13 Song of Songs 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:5; Song of Songs 6:11; Song of Songs 1:12; Song of Songs 8:2
  14. 14 Exodus 30:23; Song of Songs 4:6; Song of Songs 3:6; Song of Songs 6:2; Proverbs 7:17
  15. 15 John 4:10; John 7:38; John 4:14; Jeremiah 2:13; Revelation 22:1
  16. 16 Song of Songs 6:2; Song of Songs 5:1; Ezekiel 37:9; Song of Songs 4:13–14; 1 Peter 2:5

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 4:2 Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine (Book II, Chapters 5–6)

    … is said of the Church, when it is being praised under the figure of a beautiful woman, "Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn which came up from the washing, whereof every one bears twins, and none is barren among them?" Does the hearer learn anything more than when he listens to the same thought expressed …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  2. Quotes verse 4:12 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Lecture XIV)

    For though it has now been most highly adorned with royal gifts, yet formerly it was a garden, and the signs and the remnants of this remain. A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, by the Jews who said, We remember that that deceiver said while He was yet alive, After three days, I will rise: command, therefore, that the …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)

  3. Quotes verse 4:2 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm III)

    Of these teeth too of the Church it is said, "Thy teeth are as a flock of shorn sheep, coming up from the bath, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them." These are they who prescribe rightly, and as they prescribe, live; who do what is written, "Let your works shine before men, that …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)

  4. Quotes verse 4:15 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Lecture XIV)

    But who is the fountain that is sealed, or who is interpreted as being a well-spring of living water?

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)