TRV
Translation
King James Version
A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Complete Jewish Bible
My sister, my bride, is a garden locked up, a pool covered over, a spring sealed shut.
Berean Standard Bible
My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
American Standard Version
A garden shut up is my sister, my bride; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
World English Bible Messianic
A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
Geneva Bible (1599)
My sister my spouse is as a garden inclosed, as a spring shut vp, and a fountaine sealed vp.
Young's Literal Translation
A garden shut up is my sister-spouse, A spring shut up--a fountain sealed.
See also
In the KJVVerse 17,595 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.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
ON BAPTISM 7:51.99
Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration, I think that I am not rash in saying that there are some in the house of God after such a fashion as not to be themselves the very house of God, which is said to be built upon a rock. [The church] is called the one dove, which is styled the beauteous bride without spot or wrinkle, and a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. [This] house also received the keys, and the power of binding and loosing.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
ON BAPTISM 6:3.5
I think that we have sufficiently shown, both from the canon of Scripture and from the letters of Cyprian himself. [Thus] bad people, while by no means converted to a better mind, can have, and confer, and receive baptism, of whom it is most clear that they do not belong to the holy church of God, though they seem to be within it. [But] they are covetous, robbers, usurers, envious, evil thinkers, and the like; while [the church] is one dove, modest and chaste, a bride without spot or wrinkle, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, with all similar properties that are attributed to her.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
City of God 13.21
This account can be even better read as an allegory of the church, prophetical of what was to happen in the future. Thus the garden is the church itself, as we can see from the Canticle of Canticles; the four rivers are the four Gospels; the fruit-bearing trees are the saints, as the fruits are their works; and the tree of life is, of course, the Saint of saints, Christ.
Cyril of AlexandriaAD 444
FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:12
[This garden] is closed to the world but opened to the heavenly bridegroom. And the fountain where we are anointed after baptism was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
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.
Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagiteAD 532
Letter IX to Titus, Section IV
Wherefore the divine and spiritually perceived Oracles are likened to dew, and water, and to milk, and wine, and honey; on account of their life-producing power, as in water; and growth-giving, as in milk; and reviving, as in wine; and both purifying and preserving, as in honey. For these things, the Divine Wisdom gives to those approaching it, and furnishes and fills to overflowing, a stream of ungrudging and unfailing good cheer.
BedeAD 735
Commentary on the Song of Songs
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, etc. The garden is the Church, which produces various sprouts of spiritual works, which are subsequently listed under various names of spices. It is a fountain that overflows with saving doctrine, by which it waters the minds of its faithful, as if they were herb beds of spices, which it had prepared spread out. Hence it is written: A deep water, words from the mouth of a man, and an overflowing torrent, the fountain of wisdom (Prov. XX). Therefore, the Apostle says: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (I Cor. III). I planted, as if in the Lord's garden, the spices of virtues; Apollos watered, as if from the sealed fountain of heavenly doctrine; but the Lord, as his workers, helped, lest they labor in vain. But this garden is enclosed, because the Church, fortified with the protection of its Lord and Redeemer, persists lest it should ever be violated by the invasion of impious ones, either of unbelieving men or unclean spirits, and delayed in the bearing of heavenly fruits by being trampled upon in all directions. This fountain is sealed, because the word of faith, which is in the Gospel, protected by seals, can never be disturbed by any attack of the erring. For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephes. IV). Whoever attempts to break this seal of the living fountain errs, and cannot profane the fountain of life; but rather kills himself in this, while the impious thrust themselves forward; like the example of the Egyptian army, which was drowned in the mystical Red Sea baptism, whereby the people of God were saved, when they presumptuously entered into sacred things not by believing, but by pursuing. And because the same holy Church, which is designated by the name of the sacred irrigated garden, was first indeed located in the small sod of Judea, but was soon greatly amplified throughout the whole world, it is rightly added:
Richard ChallonerAD 1781
A garden enclosed: Figuratively the church is enclosed, containing only the faithful.
A fountain sealed up: That none can drink of its waters, that is, the graces and spiritual benefits of the holy sacraments, but those who are within its walls.
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 4:12 is a profound declaration by the beloved, extolling the Shulamite woman through a series of rich, evocative metaphors that highlight her purity, exclusivity, and life-giving essence. By likening her to a carefully guarded garden, a protected spring, and a sealed fountain, the verse powerfully communicates the sanctity of marital intimacy and the invaluable nature of exclusive devotion within the covenant of marriage.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Song of Solomon 4:12 is exceptionally rich in Metaphor and Symbolism. The Shulamite woman is not literally a garden, spring, or fountain, but these natural elements serve as profound extended metaphors for her character, purity, and the exclusive nature of her love and devotion. The Symbolism of the "garden inclosed," "spring shut up," and "fountain sealed" is multifaceted and deeply significant: the garden symbolizes her inner beauty, fertility, and the delightful intimacy she offers; the spring and fountain symbolize her life-giving essence, refreshment, and the pure, flowing source of her affection. The repeated acts of "inclosing," "shutting up," and "sealing" are all symbolic of Exclusivity, Purity, Protection, and Ownership within the context of marital fidelity. The cumulative effect of these similar images creates a powerful sense of Emphasis and reinforces the central message of her being set apart solely for her beloved. The address "my sister, my spouse" is an example of Apposition, highlighting the dual nature of their bond as both intimate partners and covenantal kin, emphasizing both affection and commitment.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse profoundly underscores the biblical value of sexual purity and the sanctity of the marital covenant as a sacred, exclusive bond. It presents exclusive devotion within marriage not as a restrictive burden but as a beautiful, cherished, and life-giving reality, reflecting God's design for human flourishing. The imagery celebrates the wife's unique identity as a treasured source of delight, refreshment, and intimacy, reserved for her husband alone. This exclusivity fosters deep trust, cultivates profound intimacy, and establishes a secure foundation for a flourishing relationship, mirroring the divine blueprint for marriage as a sacred bond set apart from all other human relationships.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Song of Solomon 4:12 offers a beautiful, profound, and challenging vision for all relationships, particularly marriage. It invites believers to consider the immense value of purity and exclusivity, not as outdated societal norms, but as foundational cornerstones for cultivating deep, lasting, and truly fulfilling intimacy. For those contemplating marriage, this verse powerfully underscores the beauty and wisdom of reserving oneself—body, heart, and deepest affections—for one's future spouse, thereby establishing a unique and sacred bond from its inception. For those already married, it serves as an enduring and powerful reminder to continually cherish, protect, and nurture the intimacy shared with one's spouse, seeing them as a private, invaluable source of joy, refreshment, and profound companionship, set apart from all others. It encourages husbands and wives to actively cultivate an exclusive "garden" of love, where trust, devotion, and vulnerability can flourish without external interference, reflecting the preciousness and sanctity of their covenant before God and each other.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Is Song of Solomon 4:12 solely about virginity before marriage?
Answer: While the rich imagery of a "garden inclosed," "spring shut up," and "fountain sealed" has traditionally been interpreted to strongly emphasize the Shulamite's virginity prior to marriage, its primary and broader message extends to the comprehensive concept of exclusive devotion and purity within the marital covenant. The verse speaks to the profound idea that a spouse's affections, body, and deepest intimacy are reserved solely for their husband or wife. This encompasses not only pre-marital chastity but also the ongoing, lifelong commitment to marital fidelity. The beloved's praise celebrates the Shulamite as a treasured, set-apart possession, a unique source of life and delight exclusively for him, which is a beautiful and enduring picture of the commitment, trust, and security that should characterize a lifelong marriage, as biblically encouraged in Proverbs 5:18-19.
How does this verse apply to modern marital relationships?
Answer: Song of Solomon 4:12 provides timeless and profoundly relevant principles for modern marriages. It encourages spouses to intentionally cultivate a unique and protected space for their intimacy, ensuring that their deepest affections, emotional connection, and physical union are reserved exclusively for each other. This means prioritizing the marital bond above all other earthly relationships, actively guarding against any form of emotional or physical infidelity, and diligently nurturing the trust, security, and profound joy that comes from exclusive devotion. It calls husbands and wives to see each other as precious, invaluable treasures—a private "garden" or "fountain" from which they draw unique joy, refreshment, and fulfillment—thereby reinforcing the biblical call for unwavering marital fidelity and honor found in Hebrews 13:4.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Song of Solomon 4:12, with its rich imagery of an "inclosed garden," "shut up spring," and "sealed fountain," finds its ultimate spiritual fulfillment and deepest theological resonance in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ and His intimate relationship with His Church. Christ Himself is the ultimate "fountain sealed" and "spring shut up" of living water, the exclusive and inexhaustible source of eternal life, spiritual refreshment, and divine truth, as He declared in John 4:14 and promised in John 7:38. His purity is absolute, His devotion to His Father unwavering, and His perfect, once-for-all sacrifice on the cross (foreshadowed by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in John 1:29) secured the New Covenant, making Him the exclusive way to salvation and the Father (John 14:6). Moreover, the Church, as Christ's beloved bride (Ephesians 5:25-32), is likened to a "garden inclosed"—a consecrated people, set apart and purified by His precious blood, whose spiritual fruitfulness and fragrant worship flow from their exclusive union with Him. Just as the Shulamite's purity and devotion were reserved for her beloved, the Church's worship, affection, and obedience are to be exclusively directed towards Christ, her perfect Bridegroom, who has irrevocably sealed her with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of her eternal inheritance and His unwavering commitment (Ephesians 1:13-14).