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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Song of Solomon 1:16

The Woman

How handsome you are, my dearest; how you delight me! The green grass will be our bed;

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Holy Ghost;   Jews;   Popery;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jeshimon;   Song of Songs;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Song of Solomon;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Zion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bed;   Beloved;   Color;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bed;   Judah I.;   Laws, Noachian;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
How handsome you are, my love.How delightful!Our bed is verdant;
Hebrew Names Version
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; And our couch is verdant. Lover
King James Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
English Standard Version

She

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
New American Standard Bible
"How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!
New Century Version
You are so handsome, my lover, and so pleasant! Our bed is the grass.
Amplified Bible
"Behold, how fair and handsome you are, my beloved; And so delightful! Our arbor is green and luxuriant.
World English Bible
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; And our couch is verdant. Lover
Geneva Bible (1587)
My welbeloued, beholde, thou art faire and pleasant: also our bed is greene:
Legacy Standard Bible
"Behold, you are handsome, my beloved,Indeed, so pleasant!Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!
Berean Standard Bible
How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how delightful! The soft grass is our bed.
Contemporary English Version
She Speaks: My love, you are handsome, truly handsome— the fresh green grass will be our wedding bed
Complete Jewish Bible

[She]

— Look at you! So handsome, so pleasing, my darling! Our bed is the greenery;
Darby Translation
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; Also our bed is green.
Easy-to-Read Version
You are so handsome, my lover! Yes, and so charming! Our bed is so fresh and pleasant.
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yea, pleasant; also our bed is spacious.
Lexham English Bible
Look! You are beautiful, my beloved, truly pleasant. Truly our couch is verdant;
Literal Translation
Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved; yea, pleasant. Also our couch is green.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
O how fayre art thou (my beloued) how well fauored art thou? Oure bed is decte with floures,
American Standard Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green.
Bible in Basic English
See, you are fair, my loved one, and a pleasure; our bed is green.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; also our couch is leafy.
King James Version (1611)
Behold, thou art faire, my beloued; yea pleasant: also our bedde is greene.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Our bed is dect with flowres,
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, thou art fair, my kinsman, yea, beautiful, overshadowing our bed.
English Revised Version
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our couch is green.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo, my derling, thou art fair, and schapli; oure bed is fair as flouris.
Update Bible Version
Look, you are fair, my beloved, yes, pleasant: Also our couch is green.
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yes, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.
New English Translation

The Beloved to Her Lover:

Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are! The lush foliage is our canopied bed;
New King James Version
Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also our bed is green.
New Living Translation

Young Woman

You are so handsome, my love, pleasing beyond words! The soft grass is our bed;
New Life Bible
"How beautiful you are, my love, and so pleasing! Our bed is green.
New Revised Standard
Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
SHELo! thou art beautiful, my beloved, Yea delightful! BOTHYea! our couch, is covered with leaves:
Douay-Rheims Bible
(1-15) Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.
Revised Standard Version
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, thou [art] fair, my love, yea, pleasant, Yea, our couch [is] green,
THE MESSAGE
The Woman And you, my dear lover—you're so handsome! And the bed we share is like a forest glen. We enjoy a canopy of cedars enclosed by cypresses, fragrant and green.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"How handsome you are, my beloved, And so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!

Contextual Overview

12

The Woman

My king was lying on his couch, and my perfume filled the air with fragrance. 13 My lover has the scent of myrrh as he lies upon my breasts. 14 My lover is like the wild flowers that bloom in the vineyards at Engedi. 15

The Man

How beautiful you are, my love; how your eyes shine with love! 16

The Woman

How handsome you are, my dearest; how you delight me! The green grass will be our bed;
17 the cedars will be the beams of our house, and the cypress trees the ceiling.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thou art: Song of Solomon 2:3, Song of Solomon 5:10-16, Psalms 45:2, Zechariah 9:17, Philippians 3:8, Philippians 3:9, Revelation 5:11-13

also: Song of Solomon 3:7, Psalms 110:3

Reciprocal: Proverbs 7:16 - decked Song of Solomon 5:16 - most Song of Solomon 7:6 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 1:8
He named the dome "Sky." Evening passed and morning came—that was the second day.
Genesis 1:9
Then God commanded, "Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear"—and it was done.
Genesis 1:12
So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw.
Genesis 1:14
Then God commanded, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin;
Deuteronomy 4:19
Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky—the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship.
Job 31:26
I have never worshiped the sun in its brightness or the moon in all its beauty.
Job 38:7
In the dawn of that day the stars sang together, and the heavenly beings shouted for joy.
Psalms 8:3
When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
Psalms 19:6
It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other. Nothing can hide from its heat.
Psalms 74:16
You created the day and the night; you set the sun and the moon in their places;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved,.... These are the words of the church, giving back to Christ his commendation of her, and much in the same words, as more properly belonging to him than her; he calls her "my love", she calls him "my beloved": he says that she was "fair"; the same she says of him, with a like note of wonder, attention, and asseveration, he had prefixed to the commendation of her; suggesting, that his fairness and beauty were essential, original, and underived, but hers was all from him; and therefore he only ought to have the character: he, as man, is "fairer" than the children of men; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth, which makes him look lovely in the eyes of his people; and, as a divine Person, is the brightness of his Father's glory. To which she adds,

yea, pleasant; looks pleasantly, with a smiling countenance on his people, being the image of the invisible God; pleasant to behold, as the sun of righteousness, and Saviour of men; pleasant in all his offices and relations; the doctrines of his Gospel are pleasant words; his ways, his ordinances, are ways of pleasantness; and especially having his presence, and communion with him in them; and which may be designed in the next clause;

also our bed [is] green; the same with "his bed which is Solomon's"; his by gift and purchase; the church's, by having a right through him, and an admittance to all the privileges of it: where the word is preached, ordinances administered, souls are begotten and born again, there Christ and his church have fellowship with each other; said to be "green", in allusion to the strewing of beds with green herbs and leaves, and branches of trees h; particularly the nuptial bed, called from thence "thalamus" i: and it may denote the fruitfulness of the saints in grace and holiness, like green olive trees, in the house of God: or else numerous converts in the church, a large spiritual seed and offspring of Christ and the church, as were in the first times of the Gospel, and will be in the latter day: a green bed is an emblem of fruitfulness in the conjugal state; so the Targum and Jarchi interpret it.

h Vid. Alstorph. de Lectis Veterum, c. 1. p. 2. s. 9, 10. "Viridante toro consederat herbae", Virgil. Aeneid. 5. v. 388. "In medo torus est de mollibus ulvis impositus lecto", Ovid. Metamorph. 8. v. 685. i Alstorph. ibid. c. 13. p. 73, 74.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. Also our bed is green. — ערס eres, from its use in several places of the Hebrew Bible, generally signifies a mattress; and here probably a green bank is meant, on which they sat down, being now on a walk in the country. Or it may mean a bower in a garden, or the nuptial bed.


 
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