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Song of Songs 1:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Song of Songs 1:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Woman Speaks of Her Lover
2 W[a](A) Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth,
for your love is better than wine,[b]
3 better than the fragrance of your perfumes.[c]
Your name is a flowing perfume—
therefore young women love you.
4 (B)Draw me after you! Let us run![d]
The king has brought me to his bed chambers.
Let us exult and rejoice in you;
let us celebrate your love: it is beyond wine!
Rightly do they love you!
Footnotes
- 1:2–8:14 This translation augments the canonical text of the Song with the letters W, M, and D, placed in the margin, to indicate which of the characters in the Song is speaking: the woman, the man, or the “Daughters of Jerusalem.” This interpretive gloss follows an early Christian scribal practice, attested in some Septuagint manuscripts from the first half of the first millennium A.D.
- 1:2–7 The woman and her female chorus address the man, here viewed as king and shepherd (both are familiar metaphors for God; cf. Ps 23:1; Is 40:11; Jn 10:1–16). There is a wordplay between “kiss” (Hebrew nashaq) and “drink” (shaqah), anticipating 8:1–2. The change from third person (“let him kiss…”) to second person (“…for your love…”) is not uncommon in the Song and elsewhere (1:4; 2:4; etc.; Ps 23:1–3, 4–5, 6; etc.) and reflects the woman’s move from interior monologue to direct address to her partner.
- 1:3 Your perfumes: shemen (perfume) is a play on shem (name).
- 1:4 Another change, but from second to third person (cf. 1:2). The “king” metaphor recurs in 1:12; 3:5–11; 7:6. Let us exult: perhaps she is addressing young women, calling on them to join in the praise of her lover.
Song of Songs 1:2-4
New International Version
Song of Songs 1:2-4
New International Version
She[a]
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love(A) is more delightful than wine.(B)
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;(C)
your name(D) is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the young women(E) love you!
4 Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.(F)
Friends
She
How right they are to adore you!
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 1:2 The main male and female speakers (identified primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms) are indicated by the captions He and She respectively. The words of others are marked Friends. In some instances the divisions and their captions are debatable.
- Song of Songs 1:4 The Hebrew is masculine singular.
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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