Chapter Four

1–7. The Bridegroom’s praises of his bride. 8–15. The Bridegroom’s confession of his feelings toward her and new praises of her. 16. The Bride’s answering word.

Song of Songs 4:1. Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. Song of Songs 4:2. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Song of Songs 4:3. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. Song of Songs 4:4. Your neck is like the tower of David, built as an arsenal, on which hang a thousand shields—all of them shields of mighty men. Song of Songs 4:5. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, grazing among the lilies. Song of Songs 4:6. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. To depict the beauty of the bride, the sacred poet combines into one image numerous and varied features and details of nature, with the latter decidedly predominating over purely human features and by no means serving as puncta comparandi, but rather belonging to the image of the bride itself, as is especially evident from verses 12–15, where the details of nature without the aid of a comparative particle are presented directly as predicates of the bride. Here precisely, as in other parts of the book, is validated the view of Professor Olesnitsky that the center of gravity of the content of the Song of Songs lies not in the portrayal of a human personality and its form, but in the portrayal of Palestinian nature in the biblical period, a period of abundance of natural goods and development of material and spiritual culture in the promised land. “If up to now the promised land has been depicted only in its relations to the sun and in still vague features, then now, in the period of its complete summer bloom, it is described for itself, and moreover in features fully revealed. The beauty of the bride depicted here consists in flocks of the best Gilead breed of goats, in flocks of prolific sheep, in pomegranate orchards and all sorts of fragrant shrubs, and in sources of living water now made especially charming, flowing from the mountains; the bride is infused with honey and milk and fragrant with the fragrance of Lebanon and the scent of fields blessed by God, adds the Midrash (IV, 11) on the basis of Gen 27:27” (Professor Olesnitsky, p. 373). Such is the general meaning and such is the overall content of the chapter being examined (chapter IV). Further, clarification is required of individual expressions, especially in places that were not fully understood even by the ancient translators of the book, and therefore were translated unequally by different translations. “Your eyes are doves” (v. 1), more precisely from the Hebrew: your eyes are doves—an expression literally repeating what stood before Song 1:14. But here with it stands a new definition—Hebrew mibbaaḏ letzammatekh, repeated (in a somewhat different combination) two more times in v. 3 of this chapter and v. 7 of chapter VI. This expression was incomprehensible even to the LXX, who rendered it in all three places with a dim and indefinite expression: εκτος της σιωπησεως σον, Slavonic “beyond your silence.” Similarly indefinitely rendered in the Vulgate: absque eo, quod intrinsecus latet (Song 4:1) or: absque occultis tuis (Song 6:7). Thus both the LXX and Vulgate give the examined passage a metaphorical meaning but express it too unclearly. The Midrash (s. 103) considers the word mibbaaḏ to be Arabic, corresponding to the Hebrew verb arakh, to go, but this etymology also does not give a definite sense; besides, it is better to look for analogy to the word tzamma in Aramaic damam or tzamtzam, to cover. Therefore not entirely successful is the Russian Synodal translation: “beneath your veil.” It is more correct to understand tzamma in the sense of “covering,” “veil,” which meaning this word undoubtedly has in Isa 47:2, and to render the whole expression, like Archimandrite Macarius: “from beneath your veil.” The hair of the bride is compared (v. 1) to a flock of goats on Mount Gilead. Gilead (cf. Onomast. 318) in the Bible designates the entire country east of the Jordan, from the stream Arnon to the southern slopes of Hermon (Deut 34:1; Josh 22:9; Judg 20:1), and also, more specifically, the mountainous region from the Yarmuk to the elevation of Heshbon in distinction from the plain of Bashan (Josh 17:1; 2 Sam 10:33); in a narrow sense, Gilead designated individual mountain ridges, e.g., Gen 31:21, such as the present-day Jebel Gilead, south of the Jabbok, Jebel Ajlun, and others. Gilead in general and especially its mountainous part were suitable for livestock raising, and cattle were always present in great numbers (Num 32:1; Jer 50:19; Mic 7:14). Goats were found here in great abundance. The comparison of hair to a flock of goats aims to note their black, lustrous color and silky softness. On the contrary, the whiteness of the teeth (v. 2) is clarified by the comparison with a flock of white (cf. Isa 1:18) and smoothly shorn, and previously washed sheep. Under the tower or pillar of David, with which is compared, probably as to slenderness and smoothness, the neck of the bride (v. 4), is meant a tower, designed to serve as a kind of arsenal, and built by David somewhere on the Zion hill. The purpose of the tower is indicated by the Hebrew word letalliyyot. The LXX did not understand the meaning of this word and left it without translation: εις θλπιωθ; Vulgate: cum propugnaculis. But already Rabbi Kimchi pointed to the relationship of the second part of this Hebrew word with pe mouth, plural piyyot, the point of a sword (cf. Prov 5:4; Judg 3:16); if, however, the first part of the word is brought into relation with the verb tala, to hang, then it is quite possible to accept the translation of Archimandrite Macarius: “a tower of David built for hanging weapons.” The words of v. 6 are completely parallel to Song 2:17 and represent as it were a response by the bridegroom to the proposal made by the bride there.

Song of Songs 4:7. You are all beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. The verse forms the conclusion of the first half of the chapter and contains a summary of the praises of the bride’s perfections expressed thus far: here she is presented as free from any defect or blemish and full of all perfections. This depiction of the bride was reflected in the image of the perfection of the Church presented by the holy apostle (Eph 5:27), and in church liturgical usage, as was already mentioned, was transferred to the most pure image of the Immaculate Mother of God.

Song of Songs 4:8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Hurry from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards! Animated by love for the bride, the bridegroom earnestly calls her to himself “from Lebanon, from the peaks of Amana, Senir, and Hermon—from the dens of lions and leopards” (v. 8), that is, to leave the wild and majestic mountain heights near her homeland—the city of Shunem—and to strive to live life together with him. The mountains named in v. 8 represent separate mountain ridges in the mountain chain of Hermon (or Aermona) and Lebanon, with Hermon being the Hebrew name corresponding to the Phoenician-Canaanite Senir (Deut 3:9; Onomast. 30). To the word Amana the LXX gave a figurative meaning: απο αρχης της πιστεως, Slavonic: “from the beginning of faith,” which, in the opinion of Professor Olesnitsky, is justified by the tradition recorded in the Book of Enoch that the first believers in mankind lived on the mountains of Lebanon (p. 47).

Song of Songs 4:9. You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; you have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. Song of Songs 4:10. How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! Song of Songs 4:11. Honey drips from your lips, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. These depict the enraptured impression made on the bridegroom—the king—by the bride through her attractive outward appearance, and even more, of course, through her spiritual virtues (to v. 10 cf. Song 1:1). In this, the especially close nearness of the beloved to the beloved is expressed not only through the name bride (v. 8, 11), but also doubly: “my sister, my bride” (v. 9, 10, 12). According to the note of the Midrash (IV, 10–11), Israel is called bride ten times in Scripture: six times in the Song of Songs, and four times in the prophets, namely: three times in Isaiah (Isa 49:18), and once in Jeremiah (Jer 7:34)—according to the number of the ten commandments; and this bride is adorned in 24 ornaments, named in Isaiah (Isa 3:18-28)—according to the number of the sacred books of the Old Testament (s. 123–124). The characterization of the bride in v. 11 as abounding in honey and milk itself recalls the biblical characterization of the Holy Land or Palestine as a land flowing with milk and honey (Exod 3:17 and others). About the fragrance of Lebanon cf. Hos 14:7.

Song of Songs 4:12. A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed. Song of Songs 4:13. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with spikenard. Song of Songs 4:14. Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all choice spices. Song of Songs 4:15. A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon. Now the bridegroom begins to speak of the bride in the third person, but with even greater generosity bestows upon her praises. The meaning of the names “an enclosed garden,” “a closed spring,” “a sealed fountain” is clarified by analogy with Prov 5:15-18, where the fountain is a symbol of the marital love and affection of a wife, which her husband alone enjoys and no other man; consequently, these names characterize the absolute purity, chastity, and virginity of the bride. At the same time, as the following verses 13–15 show, these expressions signify fertility in general (cf. Isa 58:11), in a spiritual sense—the abundance of virtues of the bride. In v. 13 the garden is in the original text called pardes, a word found only 3 times in the Old Testament (also Eccl 2:5; Nehem 2:8). This word apparently derives from Sanskrit pairidaeza, preserved in Greek παραδεισος, paradise; literally “an enclosed place,” a park, etc.

Song of Songs 4:16. Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, that its fragrance may be wafted abroad. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits. The verse contains the words of the bride hastening to prepare her garden for the reception of her friend: the north and south winds (Vulg.: Aquilo, Auster) are invited everywhere to scatter the fragrances of the bride’s garden, so that her glory might attract all nations (cf. Ps 44:14-17). In the spiritual, moral-psychological sense “this is a depiction of the holy soul, devoted to God. Gracious gifts, like fragrant flowers, adorn her; but they reveal their power to others not before the Spirit, who ‘bloweth where it listeth’ (John 3:8), blows upon the soul’s garden. When He is pleased, the graced soul gives forth fragrance—quickens and gladdens others; when He is not pleased, she is an enclosed garden, and no one knows what treasures lie hidden within” (“Resurrection Reading,” vol. V (1841–42), p. 160).