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Tuesday, June 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Song of Solomon 1:16

The Woman And you, my dear lover—you're so handsome! And the bed we share is like a forest glen. We enjoy a canopy of cedars enclosed by cypresses, fragrant and green.

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Holy Ghost;   Jews;   Popery;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jeshimon;   Song of Songs;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Song of Solomon;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Zion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bed;   Beloved;   Color;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bed;   Judah I.;   Laws, Noachian;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
How handsome you are, my love.How delightful!Our bed is verdant;
Hebrew Names Version
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; And our couch is verdant. Lover
King James Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
English Standard Version

She

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
New American Standard Bible
"How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!
New Century Version
You are so handsome, my lover, and so pleasant! Our bed is the grass.
Amplified Bible
"Behold, how fair and handsome you are, my beloved; And so delightful! Our arbor is green and luxuriant.
World English Bible
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; And our couch is verdant. Lover
Geneva Bible (1587)
My welbeloued, beholde, thou art faire and pleasant: also our bed is greene:
Legacy Standard Bible
"Behold, you are handsome, my beloved,Indeed, so pleasant!Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!
Berean Standard Bible
How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how delightful! The soft grass is our bed.
Contemporary English Version
She Speaks: My love, you are handsome, truly handsome— the fresh green grass will be our wedding bed
Complete Jewish Bible

[She]

— Look at you! So handsome, so pleasing, my darling! Our bed is the greenery;
Darby Translation
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; Also our bed is green.
Easy-to-Read Version
You are so handsome, my lover! Yes, and so charming! Our bed is so fresh and pleasant.
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yea, pleasant; also our bed is spacious.
Good News Translation

The Woman

How handsome you are, my dearest; how you delight me! The green grass will be our bed;
Lexham English Bible
Look! You are beautiful, my beloved, truly pleasant. Truly our couch is verdant;
Literal Translation
Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved; yea, pleasant. Also our couch is green.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O how fayre art thou (my beloued) how well fauored art thou? Oure bed is decte with floures,
American Standard Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green.
Bible in Basic English
See, you are fair, my loved one, and a pleasure; our bed is green.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; also our couch is leafy.
King James Version (1611)
Behold, thou art faire, my beloued; yea pleasant: also our bedde is greene.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Our bed is dect with flowres,
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, thou art fair, my kinsman, yea, beautiful, overshadowing our bed.
English Revised Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our couch is green.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo, my derling, thou art fair, and schapli; oure bed is fair as flouris.
Update Bible Version
Look, you are fair, my beloved, yes, pleasant: Also our couch is green.
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yes, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.
New English Translation

The Beloved to Her Lover:

Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are! The lush foliage is our canopied bed;
New King James Version
Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also our bed is green.
New Living Translation

Young Woman

You are so handsome, my love, pleasing beyond words! The soft grass is our bed;
New Life Bible
"How beautiful you are, my love, and so pleasing! Our bed is green.
New Revised Standard
Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
SHELo! thou art beautiful, my beloved, Yea delightful! BOTHYea! our couch, is covered with leaves:
Douay-Rheims Bible
(1-15) Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.
Revised Standard Version
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, thou [art] fair, my love, yea, pleasant, Yea, our couch [is] green,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"How handsome you are, my beloved, And so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!

Contextual Overview

12The Woman When my King-Lover lay down beside me, my fragrance filled the room. His head resting between my breasts— the head of my lover was a sachet of sweet myrrh. My beloved is a bouquet of wildflowers picked just for me from the fields of Engedi. 15

The Man

Oh, my dear friend! You're so beautiful! And your eyes so beautiful—like doves! 16The Woman And you, my dear lover—you're so handsome! And the bed we share is like a forest glen. We enjoy a canopy of cedars enclosed by cypresses, fragrant and green.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thou art: Song of Solomon 2:3, Song of Solomon 5:10-16, Psalms 45:2, Zechariah 9:17, Philippians 3:8, Philippians 3:9, Revelation 5:11-13

also: Song of Solomon 3:7, Psalms 110:3

Reciprocal: Proverbs 7:16 - decked Song of Solomon 5:16 - most Song of Solomon 7:6 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 1:9
God spoke: "Separate! Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place; Land, appear!" And there it was. God named the land Earth. He named the pooled water Ocean. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14
God spoke: "Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth." And there it was.
Psalms 8:3
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?
Psalms 19:6
That's how God's Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.
Matthew 24:29
"Following those hard times, Sun will fade out, moon cloud over, Stars fall out of the sky, cosmic powers tremble.
Matthew 27:45
From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
Revelation 21:23
Everything New I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate." Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I'll be God to them, they'll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!" One of the Seven Angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me: "Come here. I'll show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb." He took me away in the Spirit to an enormous, high mountain and showed me Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God. The City shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light. She had a wall majestic and high with twelve gates. At each gate stood an Angel, and on the gates were inscribed the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. The wall was set on twelve foundations, the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed on them. The Angel speaking with me had a gold measuring stick to measure the City, its gates, and its wall. The City was laid out in a perfect square. He measured the City with the measuring stick: twelve thousand stadia, its length, width, and height all equal. Using the standard measure, the Angel measured the thickness of its wall: 144 cubits. The wall was jasper, the color of Glory, and the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. The foundations of the City walls were garnished with every precious gem imaginable: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate a single pearl. The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn't need sun or moon for light. God's Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp! The nations will walk in its light and earth's kings bring in their splendor. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there won't be any night. They'll bring the glory and honor of the nations into the City. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will get in.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved,.... These are the words of the church, giving back to Christ his commendation of her, and much in the same words, as more properly belonging to him than her; he calls her "my love", she calls him "my beloved": he says that she was "fair"; the same she says of him, with a like note of wonder, attention, and asseveration, he had prefixed to the commendation of her; suggesting, that his fairness and beauty were essential, original, and underived, but hers was all from him; and therefore he only ought to have the character: he, as man, is "fairer" than the children of men; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth, which makes him look lovely in the eyes of his people; and, as a divine Person, is the brightness of his Father's glory. To which she adds,

yea, pleasant; looks pleasantly, with a smiling countenance on his people, being the image of the invisible God; pleasant to behold, as the sun of righteousness, and Saviour of men; pleasant in all his offices and relations; the doctrines of his Gospel are pleasant words; his ways, his ordinances, are ways of pleasantness; and especially having his presence, and communion with him in them; and which may be designed in the next clause;

also our bed [is] green; the same with "his bed which is Solomon's"; his by gift and purchase; the church's, by having a right through him, and an admittance to all the privileges of it: where the word is preached, ordinances administered, souls are begotten and born again, there Christ and his church have fellowship with each other; said to be "green", in allusion to the strewing of beds with green herbs and leaves, and branches of trees h; particularly the nuptial bed, called from thence "thalamus" i: and it may denote the fruitfulness of the saints in grace and holiness, like green olive trees, in the house of God: or else numerous converts in the church, a large spiritual seed and offspring of Christ and the church, as were in the first times of the Gospel, and will be in the latter day: a green bed is an emblem of fruitfulness in the conjugal state; so the Targum and Jarchi interpret it.

h Vid. Alstorph. de Lectis Veterum, c. 1. p. 2. s. 9, 10. "Viridante toro consederat herbae", Virgil. Aeneid. 5. v. 388. "In medo torus est de mollibus ulvis impositus lecto", Ovid. Metamorph. 8. v. 685. i Alstorph. ibid. c. 13. p. 73, 74.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. Also our bed is green. — ערס eres, from its use in several places of the Hebrew Bible, generally signifies a mattress; and here probably a green bank is meant, on which they sat down, being now on a walk in the country. Or it may mean a bower in a garden, or the nuptial bed.


 
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