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Song of Songs 4:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Song of Songs 4:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 4
How Beautiful You Are, My Beloved[a]
Bridegroom:
1 How beautiful you are, my beloved;
your beauty has achieved perfection.
Your eyes are doves[b]
behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down the slopes of Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing.
Each one of them has a twin;
not a single one is unpaired with the other.
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 4:1 The bridegroom takes delight in detailing the charms of his bride. He compares her to flowers, to fruits, and to all the perfumes of the East. He ardently desires to be united with the one who has reserved herself for him. The bride, too, calls on the breath of the passion that comes to complete the loving embrace.
The comparison is a daring one but it must be made: God, too, contemplates the beauty of his people enriched with the many calls and favors that they have received on earth. Israel is the exclusive property of the Lord, and he invites her to come and encounter him on the hill of incense, i.e., at the temple of Jerusalem. Humankind is precious in the Lord’s eyes: it is still the Church called to partake in the Lord’s love, the unfailing joy of the new times, the feast of God. - Song of Songs 4:1 Doves: see note on Song 1:15. Gilead: a region across the Jordan, with extensive stock farms, whose goats were usually black.
