Song of Solomon 4
1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.
My darling, you are beautiful, you are very beautiful! Underneath your veil, your eyes are [as gentle as] [MET] doves. Your [long black] hair [moves from side to side] like [SIM] a flock of [black] goats moving down the slopes of Gilead Mountain.
2 Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved amongst them.
Your teeth are [very white] like [SIM] a flock of sheep [whose wool] has [just] been (shorn/cut off) and that have come up from being washed [in a stream]. You have all of your teeth; none of them is missing.
3 Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
Your lips are like [SIM] a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Beneath your veil, your [round, rosy/red] cheeks are like [SIM] the halves of a pomegranate.
4 Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armoury, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.
Your [long] neck is [beautiful] like [SIM] the tower of [King] David that was built using layers/rows of stone. [The ornaments on your necklaces are like] 1,000 [HYP] shields that are hanging [on the walls of a tower]; each one belongs to a warrior.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed amongst the lilies.
Your breasts are [as beautiful] [SIM] as two (fawns/young gazelles) that eat [grass] among lilies.
6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
Until dawn [tomorrow morning] and the nighttime shadows/darkness disappear, I will [lie close to your breasts] that are [like] [MET] hills that are covered with incense [DOU].
7 You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.
My darling, you are completely beautiful; your body is perfectly [formed]!
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
My bride, [it is as though you are in] [MET] Lebanon [far away, where I cannot reach you]; come back to me. [It is as though you are inaccessible] [MET] on the top of Hermon Mountain or the nearby peaks. Come from where the lions have their dens and where the leopards live on the mountains.
9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
My bride [DOU], you who are dearer to me than my sister, you have captured my affection [IDM] by only once quickly looking at me, and by one [strand of] jewels in your necklace.
10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
My bride, your love for me is delightful! It more delightful than wine! And the fragrance of your perfume is more pleasing than any spice!
11 Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
Being kissed by you is [as enjoyable as eating] [MTY] honey; your kisses are as sweet as milk [mixed with] honey. The aroma of your clothes is like [SIM] the aroma of [cedar trees in] Lebanon.
12 My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
My bride, [you who are dearer to me than] [MET] my sister, you are [like] [MET] a garden that is locked [in order that other men cannot enter it]; [you are like] [MET] a spring or a fountain that is covered [in order that others may not drink from it].
13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,
You are [like] [MET] an orchard of pomegranate trees full of delicious fruit, and plenty of [plants that produce] henna and nard [spices],
14 spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
and saffron and calamus and cinnamon and many other kinds of incense, and myrrh and aloes and many [other] fine spices.
15 a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon.
[You are like] [MET] a fountain in a garden, [like] [MET] a spring of clear water that flows [down] from [the mountains of] Lebanon.
16 Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.
[I want] the north wind and the south wind to come, and blow on my garden, [in order that] the fragrance [of the spices will] spread through the air. [Similarly], I want the one who loves me to come and enjoy [cuddling up to me] [like] [MET, EUP] someone comes into a garden and enjoys eating the fruit [that grows there].
