TRV
Translation
King James Version
How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
Complete Jewish Bible
My sister, my bride, how sweet is your love! How much better your love than wine, more fragrant your perfumes than any spice!
Berean Standard Bible
How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.
American Standard Version
How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride! How much better is thy love than wine! And the fragrance of thine oils than all manner of spices!
World English Bible Messianic
How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
Geneva Bible (1599)
My sister, my spouse, how faire is thy loue? howe much better is thy loue then wine? and the sauour of thine oyntments then all spices?
Young's Literal Translation
How wonderful have been thy loves, my sister-spouse, How much better have been thy loves than wine, And the fragrance of thy perfumes than all spices.
See also
In the KJVVerse 17,593 of 31,102
Study This Verse
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers . Public domain.
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Pacian of BarcelonaAD 391
LETTER 3:21
We know, too, that since it is “the well of living water” and “a fountain enclosed,” it is defiled with no filth from a heretical abyss; that it is also a garden and filled with herbs great and small alike, some of little value, some precious; and that it is also the eight souls from the ark.
Gregory of NyssaAD 395
HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9
Because a seal protects the inviolability of whatever it guards, it scares off thieves; everything not stolen remains unharmed for the master. Praise of the bride in the Song would then testify to her excellence in virtue because her mind remains safe from enemies and is guarded for her Lord in purity and tranquility. Purity seals this fountain while the radiance and transparency of the bride’s heart is unclouded by no mire of evil thoughts.
Ambrose of MilanAD 397
On Isaac and the Soul 1.2
Therefore, beware that the strength of your mind is not weakened by a certain union of bodily pleasure, and that everything dissolves into its embrace, and it opens the fountain, which ought to be closed and sealed by the study of intention and the consideration of reason. For a garden is closed, a fountain is sealed. For when the strength of the mind is dissolved, the senses pour forth a bodily pleasure excessively pernicious, and rush into a desire full of serious danger; which, if it had remained under the vigilant custody of a vivid mind, it would have restrained.
Ambrose of MilanAD 397
On the Mysteries 9:55
Christ, then, feeds his church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, he rightly says to her, “How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are your lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.” By which he signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to you, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad among unbelievers. Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished.
Ambrose of MilanAD 397
Concerning Virginity 1.9.45
In gardens of this kind the water of the pure fountain shines, reflecting the features of the image of God, lest its streams mingled with mud from the wallowing places of spiritual wild beasts should be polluted. For this reason, too, that modesty of virgins fenced in by the wall of the Spirit is enclosed lest it should lie open to be plundered. And so as a garden inaccessible from without smells of the violet, is scented with the olive and is resplendent with the rose, that religion may increase in the vine, peace in the olive and the modesty of consecrated virginity in the rose.
Ambrose of MilanAD 397
Epistle 63.36
"A garden enclosed," says He, "is My sister, My spouse, a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain." Christ says this to the Church, which he desires to be a virgin, without spot, without a wrinkle. A fertile garden is virginity, which can bear many fruits of good odour. A garden enclosed, because it is everywhere shut in by the wall of chastity. A sealed fountain, because virginity is the source and origin of modesty, having to keep inviolate the seal of purity, in which source the image of God is reflected, since the purity of simplicity agrees also with chastity of the body.
Peter ChrysologusAD 450
SERMON 145
He so departed from the abode of the womb that the virginal door did not open, and what is sung in the Canticle of Canticles was fulfilled: “My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.”
Theodoret of CyrusAD 458
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4
He calls her “a garden,” not as though bearing a single fruit of piety and virtue, but as one producing many and varied fruits; and “locked” as though sealed off and proof against intrigue.… She is also “a fountain sealed.” She is not available to everyone but to those thought worthy of these streams; the Lord in the sacred Gospels also says of this fountain, “Whoever drinks of the water I shall give will not thirst forever, and instead there will be in them a spring of living water gushing up to life eternal.” Properly, then, he refers to her as “a fountain sealed” for not being available to everyone but to those thought worthy. The divine sacraments, after all, are available not to the uninitiated but to the initiated, not to those wallowing in iniquity after initiation but to those living an exact life or purified through repentance.
Theodoret of CyrusAD 458
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4
“Fragrance of your garments like the fragrance of frankincense.” We said before that the bridegroom himself became her garment, and blessed Paul confirms it in the words, “All of you who were baptized into Christ put on Christ.” Now, the bridegroom is both God eternal and was born a man from the holy Virgin in the last days. While remaining what he was, he took as well what is ours, and clothed the bride who was formerly left naked—hence his saying to her, “fragrance of your garments like the fragrance of frankincense.” She is clothed with Christ, who is both God and man. Now, “frankincense” is a symbol of the true doctrine of God, since under the norms of the old law it was offered to God.
Theodoret of CyrusAD 458
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4
“Your lips distill a honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue.” Here it refers to the teachers of the church, offering religious teaching and, as it were, carrying honeycomb of bees on its lips, and distilling drops of honey, containing not only honey but also milk, and providing to each the appropriate nourishment, both suited to the infants and adapted to the mature. Now, honeycombs borne on the lips of the teachers are the divine Scriptures, which contain bees that make honeycombs and produce honey, the sacred prophets and apostles. These latter fly about the meadows of the Holy Spirit, as it were constructing the honeycombs of the divine Scriptures, filling them with the honey of doctrine and dispatching them to us for our benefit. The letter resembles the honeycomb, while the sense hidden in it resembles the honey; the lips of pious teachers release the drops of this honey. Also, milk flowing from their tongue reaches those in need of milk.
BedeAD 735
Commentary on the Song of Songs
And the scent of your ointments, etc. The scent of the Church's spiritual ointments is the fame of the gifts; of which it is written: Their voice has gone out unto all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Psalm XVIII). And when Mary Magdalene anointed the Lord with nard as a type of the holy Church, it is written: And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment (Matthew XXVI); where it is mystically signified that with the devout services of the Church, which are performed in honor of her Redeemer, the whole world would be filled. If, by the name of wine, the legal observance is rightly expressed, as was proven above by evangelical authority, what prevents the sweet rumor of the saints of that time from being indicated by the name of aromatic spices? Therefore, he says, the scent of your ointments is above all spices, because there is no doubt that the fame of the Christian faith, widespread throughout the world, has far surpassed the fame of the righteous who were among the earlier people. Therefore, because it has brought a public conflict to the world, having renounced the worship of the gods, it has endured public persecution from the world until it conquered: for it is not fitting for the Bride of Christ to be compared to base and vile things, either to wine, which taste consumes, or to spices, which the air customarily disperses, since even to the legal observance, it is of very little praise if it is said to surpass the cups or the spices that are suited to the senses of the flesh.
BedeAD 735
Commentary on the Song of Songs
Your breasts are more beautiful than wine. At the beginning of this song, this verse has already been explained, where it was said: "Because your breasts are better than wine," and it was understood that these words also demonstrate the beginnings of the evangelical faith surpassing all the virtue of the Mosaic law, because it led no one to perfection, since it could not bring its worshippers, even the distinguished ones, into the kingdom of heavenly life; but the grace of faith leads those reborn in the font of baptism, even infants and those who die at a very young age, to heavenly joys. For many documents prove that the ceremonies of the law should be compared to wine, but most especially that which happens when the wine runs out at the mystical wedding of the Church, so that, with the Lord miraculously working, water is made into far better wine: where it is indicated typically that the literal observation of the law would come to an end, and what was veiled in the letter would be revealed by the grace of the Gospel, the spiritual love of water would intoxicate the house of heavenly marriage, that is, the holy Church, which Christ deemed worthy to consecrate as His bride. Therefore, the breasts of the bride are more beautiful than wine, because the beginnings of evangelical faith surpass the legal decrees, even those that have proven to be fragrant with no little taste and sweetness of virtues. But it should be noted more carefully in these words that the beloved praises the breasts of his beloved bride above, but here the same beloved praises the breasts of his sister and bride, and testifies that they are to be preferred to wine: for this reciprocal insertion in the sacred song is not to be thought of as in vain, but so that the unity of Christ and the Church may be more deeply recommended. For He is the head of the body of the Church, and she is the body of this head. Hence the Apostle also said: "The two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5). Therefore, by a similar example, the breasts of the bridegroom and the bride are praised as if they were the same, because the same teachers of the Church are the teachers of Christ: of the Church, obviously, because they teach it; of Christ, however, because they teach at His command, because they teach His precepts to it, because by teaching they advance it to His companionship. Finally, the Apostle, who said: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1), also said again; "We are your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4). And in another place: "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas" (1 Cor. 3).
BedeAD 735
Commentary on the Song of Songs
How beautiful are your breasts! etc. Just as in the neck, eyes, and teeth, so too in the breasts are understood the teachers of the Church; but this is different in that they are to be regarded with these names either when they speak wisdom among the perfect or when they refute those who contradict; indeed, when they become weak for the weak in order to gain the weak, they are rightly said to have the office of breasts, because they impart the milk of milder doctrine to those of small understanding, namely to those who cannot yet comprehend the bread of a higher word. For they are teeth when they rebuke the restless; they are breasts when they comfort the faint-hearted and support the weak. And rightly does he praise and marvel at the beauty of the breasts in his sister and bride, for it is a work great before God and of wondrous virtue, when one who is capable of revealing the higher secrets of truth to the more perfect does not disdain to instruct the weak in the rudiments of faith. Rightly does the Lord testify that such a soul is his sister and bride, because he considers her most worthy of his love and union, as he sees her become an imitator of his work. For he himself, to make us strong from the weak, did not refuse to be weak for a time, even to die so that we might live. Though he was the bread of angels in divinity, he willed to hide himself in the assumption of flesh, so as to nourish human faint-heartedness and make them capable of the same heavenly bread. For since an infant is less fit to feed on bread, by thus consuming the bread the mother in a way incarnates herself, and through the humility of the breast and milk’s juice feeds the child on that same bread. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1). This is the eternal food by which the angels are refreshed, for they are satisfied by seeing His glory. But the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Ibid.), so that thus also the wisdom of God, which consoles us as a mother, might refresh us with that same bread, and through the sacrament of the incarnation lead us to the knowledge and vision of divine love. But the holy teachers also transform the bread by which they are themselves sublimely nourished into milk by which they nourish the little ones, while the higher they contemplate eternal joys in God, the more humbly they sympathize with the weakness of their neighbors.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Song of Solomon 4:10 captures the bridegroom's effusive praise for his beloved, the Shulamite, highlighting the unparalleled excellence of her love and presence. Through a series of vivid comparisons, he declares her affection to be superior to the finest wine and the fragrance of her being more delightful than the most exquisite spices. This verse serves as a climactic expression of adoration, celebrating not merely physical beauty, but the profound, intoxicating essence of her character, devotion, and intimate companionship within their blossoming marital bond.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Song of Solomon 4:10 is rich with Hyperbole, as the bridegroom declares his beloved's love and fragrance to be "much better" than all wine and all spices, emphasizing an immeasurable superiority. This exaggeration underscores the depth of his adoration and the unparalleled value he places on her. The verse also employs striking Simile and Metaphor, comparing her "love" to "wine" and the "smell of thine ointments" to "all spices." These comparisons are not merely decorative but convey the intoxicating, delightful, and deeply satisfying nature of her presence and affection through vivid sensory imagery. The use of Terms of Endearment like "my sister, my spouse" is a powerful form of Affectionate Address, revealing the intimate, multifaceted nature of their relationship, encompassing both purity and covenantal commitment. The verse's appeal to the senses of taste (wine) and smell (ointments, spices) creates vivid Sensory Imagery, drawing the reader into the profound experience of the bridegroom's delight and the pervasive beauty of his beloved.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse beautifully articulates the profound value of covenantal love and intimacy, elevating the marital bond above all earthly pleasures. The bridegroom's ecstatic praise highlights that true satisfaction is found not in material possessions or fleeting sensory experiences, but in the deep, reciprocal affection shared within a committed relationship. The dual address "my sister, my spouse" is particularly significant, underscoring the ideal of marriage as a union built upon both passionate love and a foundational friendship rooted in purity and mutual respect. The "love" described here, dôwd, speaks to the expressions and delights of intimacy, suggesting that the tangible manifestations of affection are more intoxicating and satisfying than any external stimulant. This passage serves as a theological affirmation of marriage as a divine gift, designed to bring unparalleled joy and fulfillment, reflecting a harmonious and delightful union that mirrors God's own relational nature.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Song of Solomon 4:10 offers profound insights for cultivating deep, satisfying relationships in our own lives. It challenges us to look beyond superficial attractions and fleeting pleasures, encouraging us to prioritize the profound, enduring joy found in genuine intimacy and committed love. The bridegroom's lavish praise models the importance of verbal affirmation and appreciation within relationships; expressing how deeply we value our loved ones' character and presence can significantly strengthen bonds and foster a thriving environment of mutual admiration. Furthermore, the "sister, spouse" imagery reminds us that the most robust romantic relationships are often those built upon a foundation of deep friendship, mutual respect, and covenant loyalty. This verse calls us to cultivate relationships where love is not merely a feeling, but a powerful, intoxicating force that enriches life more profoundly than any worldly indulgence, encouraging us to invest in the spiritual and emotional richness of our connections, recognizing that such love is a reflection of divine design.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does the bridegroom call his beloved "my sister, my spouse"?
Answer: The dual address "my sister, my spouse" is a beautiful and significant term of endearment in Song of Solomon. "My spouse" (Hebrew: kallâh) clearly indicates her status as his bride, emphasizing the covenantal, exclusive, and intimate nature of their marital union. "My sister" (Hebrew: ʼâchôwth) adds a layer of deep friendship, purity, and equality to the relationship. It suggests a bond of kinship and companionship that undergirds their romantic love, highlighting that their marriage is built not only on passion but also on profound respect, trust, and shared life, much like the intimacy described in Proverbs 18:24. This unique combination underscores the multifaceted ideal of marriage as a relationship that encompasses both passionate romance and profound, respectful friendship, portraying the beloved as both an intimate partner and a cherished confidante.
What is the significance of comparing her love to wine and her ointments to spices?
Answer: In ancient cultures, wine was a symbol of joy, celebration, and earthly pleasure, often associated with feasting and merriment, as seen in Ecclesiastes 9:7 and Psalm 104:15. Ointments and spices were highly valued commodities, signifying luxury, honor, and delightful fragrance. By comparing his beloved's love to wine and her essence (the smell of her ointments) to spices, the bridegroom uses hyperbole to declare that her love and presence are infinitely more intoxicating, delightful, and satisfying than the most cherished earthly pleasures. Her love brings a deeper, more profound, and lasting joy that surpasses any material or sensory indulgence, much like the "pleasant words" that are "sweet to the soul and health to the bones" in Proverbs 16:24. This emphasizes the supreme value he places on her affection and presence.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Song of Solomon 4:10 primarily celebrates the beauty of human marital love, Christian theology often interprets this book as an allegory for the profound relationship between Christ and His Church. In this light, the bridegroom's ecstatic praise for his beloved foreshadows Christ's immeasurable love and adoration for His redeemed people. Just as the Shulamite's love is declared "better than wine" and her presence more delightful "than all spices," so too is the Church, as the Bride of Christ, cherished and esteemed above all earthly treasures by her divine Bridegroom. Jesus' love for the Church is the ultimate expression of dôwd, a self-sacrificial and covenantal affection that surpasses all human understanding and earthly delights, as perfectly exemplified in His giving Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). The "smell of thine ointments" can be seen as the pleasing aroma of the Church's devotion and obedience, made fragrant by Christ's own righteousness and the indwelling Holy Spirit, a sacrifice of a "fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:2). This verse, therefore, points to the glorious reality of Christ's unyielding affection for His pure and beloved Bride, the Church, eagerly awaiting the consummation of their union at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7), where their perfect and eternal intimacy will be fully realized.