Open English Translation SNG Chapter 4

4 The groom

4 Wow, you’re beautiful, my darling.

Look, at you, so beautiful.

Your eyes are doves from behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats that hop down from the slopes of Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep that have come up from the washing,

all of which have identical pairs and none of them have been lost.

3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like a slice of pomegranate from behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David that’s built of layers—

a thousand shields hanging on it—all the shields of the warriors.

5 Your two breasts are like two fawns—

twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

6 Until the daylight arrives and the shadows flee,

I myself will go to the mountain of myrrh

≈and to the hill of frankincense.

7 All of you is beautiful, my darling,

≈and you don’t have any flaws.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride.

Descend from the top of Amana,

≈from the top of Senir and Hermon,

from the hiding places of lions,

≈from the mountains of leopards.

9 You have enchanted my heart, my girlfriend, my bride.

You’ve enchanted my heart with one look from your eyes—

with one jewel from your necklace.

10 How your love is beautiful, my girlfriend, my bride.

How your love is better than wine

and the smell of your oils is nicer than all spices.

11 Your lips drip with nectar, my bride.

Honey and milk are under your tongue,

and your clothes smell nice like Lebanon’s forests.

12 My girlfriend, my bride, is a locked garden,

a locked spring, a sealed fountain.

13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranate trees with delicious fruits,

and henna and nard spice plants,

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees used for incense,

myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,

15 a fountain of gardens,

a well of living waters,

and streams flowing down from Lebanon.