Song of Solomon 4:12

Easy-to-Read Version

My darling, my bride, you are pure like a locked garden. You are like a locked pool, a closed fountain.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My sister, my bride, you are a locked garden—a locked garden and a sealed spring.

Hebrew Names Version
A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; A locked up spring, A sealed fountain.

King James Version
A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

English Standard Version
A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed.

New American Standard Bible
"A locked garden is my sister, my bride, A locked spring, a sealed fountain.

New Century Version
My sister, my bride, you are like a garden locked up, like a walled-in spring, a closed-up fountain.

Amplified Bible
"A garden enclosed is my sister, my [promised] bride— A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.

World English Bible
A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; A locked up spring, A sealed fountain.

Geneva Bible (1587)
My sister my spouse is as a garden inclosed, as a spring shut vp, and a fountaine sealed vp.

Legacy Standard Bible
A garden locked is my sister, my bride,A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.

Berean Standard Bible
My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

Contemporary English Version
My bride, my very own, you are a garden, a fountain closed off to all others.

Complete Jewish Bible
My sister, my bride, is a garden locked up, a pool covered over, a spring sealed shut.

Darby Translation
A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

George Lamsa Translation
A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride; yea, a garden guarded, a fountain sealed.

Good News Translation
My sweetheart, my bride, is a secret garden, a walled garden, a private spring;

Lexham English Bible
A garden locked is my sister bride, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

Literal Translation
A locked garden is My sister, My spouse; a spring locked up, a sealed fountain.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thou art a well kepte garden (o my sister, my spouse) thou art a well kepte water sprynge, a sealed well.

American Standard Version
A garden shut up is my sister, my bride; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Bible in Basic English
A garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut up, a spring of water stopped.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
A garden shut up is my sister, my bride; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

King James Version (1611)
A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse: a spring shut vp, a fountaine sealed.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A garden well locked is my sister, my spouse: a garden well locked, and a sealed well.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My sister, my spouse is a garden enclosed; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.

English Revised Version
A garden shut up is my sister, [my] bride; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi sister spousesse, a gardyn closid togidere; a gardyn closid togidere, a welle aseelid.

Update Bible Version
A garden shut up is my sister, [my] bride; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Webster's Bible Translation
A garden inclosed [is] my sister, [my] spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

New English Translation

The Lover to His Beloved:

You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain.

New King James Version
A garden enclosed Is my sister, my spouse, A spring shut up, A fountain sealed.

New Living Translation
You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.

New Life Bible
A garden closed and locked is my sister, my bride, a garden shut up and covered over.

New Revised Standard
A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A garden barred, is my sister, bride, - a spring barred, a fountain sealed:

Douay-Rheims Bible
My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.

Revised Standard Version
A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.

Young's Literal Translation
A garden shut up [is] my sister-spouse, A spring shut up -- a fountain sealed.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.

Contextual Overview

⁸ Come with me, my bride, from Lebanon. Come with me from Lebanon. Come from the peak of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lion's caves, from the mountain of the leopards. ⁹ My darling, my bride, you excite me! You have stolen my heart with just one quick look from your eyes, with just one of the jewels from your necklace. ¹⁰ Your love is so beautiful, my darling, my bride! Your love is better than wine. The smell of your perfume is better than any kind of spice! ¹¹ My bride, your lips drip honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes smell as sweet as perfume. ¹² My darling, my bride, you are pure like a locked garden. You are like a locked pool, a closed fountain. ¹³ Your limbs are like a garden filled with pomegranates and other pleasant fruit, with all the best spices: henna, ¹⁴ nard, saffron, calamus, and cinnamon. Your limbs are like a garden filled with trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloe.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

garden: Song of Solomon 6:2, Song of Solomon 6:11, Proverbs 5:15-18, Isaiah 58:11, Isaiah 61:10, Isaiah 61:11, Jeremiah 31:12, Hosea 6:3, 1 Corinthians 6:13, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 1 Corinthians 7:34, Revelation 21:27

enclosed: Heb. barred

sealed: 2 Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13, Ephesians 4:30, Revelation 7:3

Reciprocal: Numbers 24:6 - as gardens Ecclesiastes 2:5 - me Song of Solomon 3:6 - perfumed Song of Solomon 4:9 - my sister Song of Solomon 4:15 - fountain Matthew 12:50 - and sister Luke 13:19 - cast 1 Corinthians 9:5 - a sister

Cross-References

Genesis 4:3
At harvest time, Cain brought a gift to the Lord . He brought some of the food that he grew from the ground, but Abel brought some animals from his flock. He chose some of his best sheep and brought the best parts from them. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift.

Genesis 4:14
You are forcing me to leave the land, and I will not be able to be near you or have a home! Now I must wander from place to place, and anyone I meet could kill me."

Genesis 4:17
Cain had sexual relations with his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Enoch. Cain built a city and gave the city the same name as his son Enoch.

Genesis 4:18
Enoch had a son named Irad. Irad had a son named Mehujael. Mehujael had a son named Methushael. And Methushael had a son named Lamech.

Genesis 4:23
Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! You wives of Lamech, listen to me. A man hurt me, so I killed him. I even killed a child for hitting me.

Genesis 4:24
The punishment for killing Cain was very bad. But the punishment for killing me will be many times worse!"

Leviticus 26:20
You will work hard, but it will not help. Your land will not give any crops, and your trees will not grow their fruit.

Leviticus 26:36
The survivors will lose their courage in the land of their enemies. They will be afraid of everything. They will run around like a leaf blown by the wind. They will run as if someone is chasing them with a sword. They will fall even when no one is chasing them.

Psalms 109:10
Make his children wander around as beggars, forced from homes that lie in ruins.

Hosea 9:17
Those people will not listen to my God, so he will refuse to listen to them. And they will wander among the nations without a home.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A garden enclosed [is] my sister, [my] spouse,.... At a little distance from Bethlehem are pools of water, and below these runs a narrow rocky valley, enclosed on both sides with high mountains which the friars, as Mr. Maundrell says d will have to be the enclosed garden here alluded to; but it is more likely that the allusion is to a garden near Jerusalem, called the king's garden, Adrichomius e makes mention of, which was shut up, and only for the king's use and pleasure: to which the church may be compared; for its being distinguished from the world's wide waste, by the sovereign grace of God; and for the smallness of it in comparison of that; and for its pleasantness and fruitfulness, having pleasant and precious plants of great renown; or consisting of persons of different gifts and graces; in whose hearts these are not naturally, or do not grow there of themselves; but are sown or planted and raised up by the Spirit of God, for which the fallow ground of their hearts is thrown up: and that everything may be kept in good order, as in a garden, the plants are watered with the grace of God; the trees of righteousness are pruned by Christ's father, the vinedresser; the fences are kept up, and the whole is watched over night and day; and here Christ, the owner of it, takes his delightful walks, and grants his presence with his people. And the church is like an "enclosed" garden; for distinction, being separated by the grace of God, in election, redemption, effectual calling, c. and for protection, being encompassed with the power of God, as a wall about it and for secrecy, being so closely surrounded, that it is not to be seen nor known by the world; and indeed is not accessible to any but to believers in Christ; and is peculiarly for his use, who is the proprietor of it; see Song of Solomon 4:16;

a spring shut up, a fountain sealed; the allusion may be to the sealed fountains great personages reserved for their own use; such as the kings of Persia had, of which the king and his eldest son only might drink f; and King Solomon might have such a spring and fountain in his garden, either at Jerusalem or at Ethan, where he had pleasant gardens, in which he took great delight, as Josephus g relates: and near the pools, at some distance from Bethlehem, supposed to be his, is a fountain, which the friars will have to be the sealed fountain here alluded to; and, to confirm which, they pretend a tradition, that Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to preserve the waters for his own drinking; and Mr. Maundrell h, who saw them, says it was not difficult so to secure them, they rising underground, and having no avenue to them, but by a little hole, like to the mouth of a narrow well. Now the church may be thus compared, because of the abundance of grace in her, and in each of her members, which is as a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life, John 4:14; and because of the doctrines of the Gospel, called a fountain, Joel 3:18; with which Gospel ministers water the plants in Christ's garden, the members of the church; whereby they are revived, refreshed, and flourish; and their souls become as a watered garden, whose springs fail not. Though some read this clause in connection with the former; "a garden enclosed [art thou], with a spring" or flow of water "shut up, [and] with a fountain sealed" i; meaning Christ and his fulness; from whence all grace is received by the church and its members; and with which they are supplied, and their souls are watered: and the phrases, "shut up" and "sealed", which, whether applied to the doctrines of grace and truth, in and from Christ, may denote the secrecy and safety of them from the men of the world; or to the grace of Christ, communicated by him to the saints, may denote the security of it, the invisible operations of it, and the sole exercise of it on him: for these phrases denote the inviolable chastity of the church to Christ, in her faith, love, service, and worship; see Proverbs 5:15; and are used in the Jewish writings k, to express the chastity of the bride. Ambrose affirms l, that what Plato m says concerning Jove's garden, elsewhere called by him the garden of the mind, is taken out of Solomon's Song.

d Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 89. Edit. 7. e Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 170. f Theatrum Deipnosoph. l. 12. c. 2. p. 515. g Antiqu. l. 8. c. 7. s. 3. Vid. Adrichom. p. 170. h Journey from Aleppo &c. p. 88, 89. i "Cum fluctu obserato, cum fonte obsignato", Marckius, so some in Michaelis. k T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 75. Apud Wagenseil. Sota, p. 240. Seder Tephillot, fol. 203. 1. Ed. Basil. vid. Targum, Jarchi & Aben Ezra in loc. l De Bono Mortis, c. 5. m In Sympos. p. 1194.

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!”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. A garden enclosed - a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. — Different expressions to point out the fidelity of the bride, or of the Jewish queen. See the outlines. She is unsullied, a chaste, pure virgin. None has ever entered into this garden; none has yet tasted of this spring; the seal of this fountain has never been broken. Among the Athenians, the interior part of the house, called the women's apartment, was not only locked but sealed; so Aristophan., Thesmoph. ver. 422: -

Ειτα δια τουτον ταις γυναικωνιτισιν

Σφραγιδας εμβαλλουσιν ηδη και μοχλους.

And on this account, to the women's apartment

They place seals as well as bolts.

And seal, as applicable to chaste conduct, is a phrase well known to the Greeks. AEschylus, in the Agamemnon, praises a woman, σημαντη ριον ουδεν διαφψειρασαν, who had not violated her seal of conjugal faith. But Nonnus, lib. ii., uses the form of speech exactly as Solomon does with reference to a pure virgin; he says, Αψαυστον ἑης σφρηγιδα κορειης; "She had preserved the seal of her virginity untouched." All this is plain; but how many will make metaphors out of metaphors!