Song of Solomon 4:14

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon! Descend the peak of Amana, from the summits of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards. ⁹You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck. ¹⁰How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride. Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices. ¹¹Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon. ¹²My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed. ¹³Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard, ¹⁴with nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

calamus: Exodus 30:23, Ezekiel 27:19

cinnamon: Proverbs 7:17, Revelation 18:13

trees: Song of Solomon 4:6, Song of Solomon 5:1, Numbers 24:6

the chief: Song of Solomon 6:2, Genesis 43:11, 1 Kings 10:10, 2 Chronicles 9:9, Mark 16:1

Reciprocal: Psalms 45:8 - All Song of Solomon 1:13 - bundle Song of Solomon 1:14 - camphire Song of Solomon 4:13 - camphire Song of Solomon 4:16 - the spices Song of Solomon 5:5 - my hands Mark 14:3 - of ointment John 12:3 - ointment John 19:39 - a

Cross-References

Genesis 4:5
but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.

Genesis 4:6
"Why are you angry," said the LORD to Cain, "and why has your countenance fallen?

Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Genesis 4:12
When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."

Genesis 4:13
But Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Genesis 4:14
Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

Genesis 4:15
"Not so!" replied the LORD. "If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold." And the LORD placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:20
And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and raise livestock.

Genesis 4:24
If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Spikenard and saffron,.... The former is the best sort of nard, and therefore mentioned and repeated, to which saints may be compared, because of the graces of the Spirit in them; which, when exercised, give a sweet odour, and are exceeding grateful to Christ; see Song of Solomon 1:12; and the latter, according to Schindler s, seems to have been read "carcos", the same with "crocus", and is a plant well known by us for its cheering nature; and has its name from the Arabic, "zaffran", because of its yellow or golden colour; but "crocus", from "Corycus" t, a mountain in Cilicia, where it grew; it is properly joined with spikenard, since itself is a "spica", and is sometimes called "spica Cilissa" u. Next follow

calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; "calamus" is the sweet cane in Isaiah 43:24; "cinnamon" is the rind or bark of a tree; both grow in India w and in Arabia x; as also trees of "frankincense", which are only in Arabia; hence one of the Arabias is called "thurifera" y, for they do not grow in all Arabia: the two first were ingredients in the holy anointing oil, and the latter in the holy perfume, Exodus 30:23;

myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices; Solomon's gardens might be furnished with all these; and with the above trees, plants, and spices, from Arabia Felix, where, as Appianus z says, "cassia" grew in marshy places; myrrh and frankincense were gathered from trees, cinnamon from shrubs, and their meadows naturally produced nard; hence called "aromatifera", the spicy country a: myrrh was also an ingredient in the anointing oil; and aloes, according to the Targum, is the same with lign aloes; see Numbers 24:6; not the herb which has a very bitter juice, but the tree of a sweet odour, which Isidore b distinguishes, and is what is meant in Psalms 45:8; and were both of a very fragrant smell. Now all these trees, plants, and spices, signify truly precious souls, possessed of the graces of the Spirit; comparable to them for their valuableness and excellency, their sweet smell, and the reviving and refreshing nature of them; which make the subjects of these graces very agreeable to Christ, and to one another. What a garden is the church thus planted!

s Lexic. Pentaglott. col. 910. t "Corycii pressura croci", Lucan. Pharsal. l. 9. v. 809. u Ovid. Fast. l. 1. v. 76. in Ibin, v. 200. Propert. l. 4. Eleg. 6. v. 74. w Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 19, 22. Strabo, l. 15. p. 478. x Herodot. Thalia, c. 107. "Cinnamoni et multi pastor odoris Araba", Propert. l. 3. Eleg. 13. v. 8, 9. y Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 14. z Apud Schindler. Lexic. col. 1192. a Strabo. Geograph. l. 16. p. 538. Vid. p. 535. b Origin. l. 17. c. 8, 9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The loveliness and purity of the bride are now set forth under the image of a paradise or garden fast barred against intruders, filled with rarest plants of excellent fragrance, and watered by abundant streams. Compare Proverbs 5:15-20.

Song of Solomon 4:12

A fountain sealed - i. e., A well-spring covered with a stone Genesis 29:3, and sealed with “the king’s own signet” (Daniel 6:17; compare Matthew 27:66).

Song of Solomon 4:13

Orchard - This is the renderlng here and in Ecclesiastes 2:5 of “pardes” (see Nehemiah 2:8 note). The pomegranate was for the Jews a sacred fruit, and a characteristic product of the land of promise (compare Exodus 28:33-34; Numbers 20:5; Deuteronomy 8:8; 1 Kings 7:18, 1 Kings 7:20). It is frequently mentioned in the Song, and always in connection with the bride. It abounds to this day in the ravines of the Lebanon.

Camphire - Cyprus. See Song of Solomon 1:14 note.

Song of Solomon 4:13-15

Seven kinds of spices (some of them with Indian names, e. g. aloes, spikenard, saffron) are enumerated as found in this symbolic garden. They are for the most part pure exotics which have formed for countless ages articles of commerce in the East, and were brought at that time in Solomon’s ships from southern Arabia, the great Indian Peninsula, and perhaps the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The picture here is best regarded as a purely ideal one, having no corresponding reality but in the bride herself. The beauties and attractions of both north and south - of Lebanon with its streams of sparkling water and fresh mountain air, of Engedi with its tropical climate and henna plantations, of the spice-groves of Arabia Felix, and of the rarest products of the distant mysterious Ophir - all combine to furnish one glorious representation, “Thou art all fair!”