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New Living Translation

Song of Solomon 4:13

Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates with rare spices— henna with nard,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Bridegroom;   Camphire;   Cypress;   Righteous;   Spikenard;   Thompson Chain Reference - Agriculture-Horticulture;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Pomegranate-Tree, the;   Saints, Compared to;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Camphire;   Gardens;   Paradise;   Pomegranate;   Spikenard;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Spices;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Paradise;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Pomegranate;   Saffron;   Spikenard;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Camphire;   Canticles;   ;   Garden;   Paradise;   Pomegranate;   Spikenard;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Camphire;   Flowers;   Orchard;   Paradise;   Plants in the Bible;   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Song of Solomon;   Spices;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Camphire;   Forest;   Orchard;   Pomegranate;   Song of Songs;   Spikenard;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Nard ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Camphire;   Garden, Gardener;   Spikenard,;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Spikenard;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Camphire;   Spikenard;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Camphire;   Orchard;   Pomegranate;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Camphire;   Paradise;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Forest;   Garden;   Henna;   Orchard;   Paradise;   Park;   Pomegranate;   Song of Songs;   Spikenard;   Wisdom of Solomon, the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Camphire;   Horticulture;   Nard;   Paradise;   Pomegranate;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Your branches are a paradise of pomegranateswith choicest fruits;henna with nard,
Hebrew Names Version
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: Henna with spikenard plants,
King James Version
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
English Standard Version
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
New American Standard Bible
"Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates With delicious fruits, henna with nard plants,
New Century Version
Your limbs are like an orchard of pomegranates with all the best fruit, filled with flowers and nard,
Amplified Bible
"Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, [A paradise] with precious fruits, henna with fragrant plants,
World English Bible
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: Henna with spikenard plants,
Geneva Bible (1587)
Thy plantes are as an orchard of pomegranates with sweete fruites, as camphire, spikenarde,
Legacy Standard Bible
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranatesWith choice fruits, henna with nard plants,
Berean Standard Bible
Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,
Contemporary English Version
Your arms are vines, covered with delicious fruits and all sorts of spices— henna, nard,
Complete Jewish Bible
You are an orchard that puts forth pomegranates and other precious fruits, henna and nard —
Darby Translation
Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants;
Easy-to-Read Version
Your limbs are like a garden filled with pomegranates and other pleasant fruit, with all the best spices: henna,
George Lamsa Translation
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; henna-flower with spikenard.
Good News Translation
there the plants flourish. They grow like an orchard of pomegranate trees and bear the finest fruits. There is no lack of henna and nard,
Lexham English Bible
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruit, henna with nard;
Literal Translation
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with excellent fruits, with henna and spikenard;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The frutes that sproute in the, are like a very paradyse of pogranates wt swete frutes:
American Standard Version
Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants,
Bible in Basic English
The produce of the garden is pomegranates; with all the best fruits, henna and spikenard,
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Thy shoots are a park of pomegranates, with precious fruits; henna with spikenard plants,
King James Version (1611)
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, Camphire, with Spikenaed,
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The fruites that are planted in thee, are lyke a very paradise of pomegranates with sweete fruites, as Camphire,
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Thy shoots are a garden of pomegranates, with the fruit of choice berries; camphor, with spikenard:
English Revised Version
Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; henna with spikenard plants,
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thi sendingis out ben paradis of applis of Punyk, with the fruytis of applis, cipre trees, with narde;
Update Bible Version
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants,
Webster's Bible Translation
Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard,
New English Translation
Your shoots are a royal garden full of pomegranates with choice fruits: henna with nard,
New King James Version
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates With pleasant fruits, Fragrant henna with spikenard,
New Life Bible
Your young branches are a garden of pomegranates with all the best fruits, henna with nard plants.
New Revised Standard
Your channel is an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Thy buddings forth, are a paradise of pomegranates, with precious fruits, - henna bushes, with nard blossoms:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard. Cypress with spikenard.
Revised Standard Version
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
Young's Literal Translation
Thy shoots a paradise of pomegranates, With precious fruits,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates With choice fruits, henna with nard plants,

Contextual Overview

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Come down from Mount Amana, from the peaks of Senir and Hermon, where the lions have their dens and leopards live among the hills. 9 You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace. 10 Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices. 11 Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon. 12 You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain. 13 Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates with rare spices— henna with nard, 14 nard and saffron, fragrant calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, and every other lovely spice.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

are: Song of Solomon 6:11, Song of Solomon 7:12, Song of Solomon 8:2, Psalms 92:14, Ecclesiastes 2:5, Isaiah 60:21, Isaiah 61:11, John 15:1-3, Philippians 1:11

pleasant: Song of Solomon 6:2

camphire: or, cypress, Song of Solomon 4:14, Song of Solomon 1:14

spikenard: Song of Solomon 1:12, Mark 14:3, John 12:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 24:53 - precious Exodus 28:34 - General Exodus 39:25 - the pomegranates Exodus 39:26 - pomegranate 2 Chronicles 4:13 - four hundred Psalms 45:8 - All Proverbs 7:17 - with Song of Solomon 4:16 - the spices Song of Solomon 5:1 - I have gathered Song of Solomon 5:5 - my hands Ezekiel 27:19 - cassia Joel 1:12 - the pomegranate Joel 2:8 - sword Revelation 18:13 - cinnamon

Cross-References

Job 15:22
They dare not go out into the darkness for fear they will be murdered.
Revelation 16:9
Everyone was burned by this blast of heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over all these plagues. They did not repent of their sins and turn to God and give him glory.
Revelation 16:11
and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.
Revelation 16:21
There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing as much as seventy-five pounds fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the terrible plague of the hailstorm.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates,.... These plants are the members of the church, true converts, believers in Christ; pleasant plants, plants of renown, planted in the church by Christ's heavenly Father, and shall never be plucked up; or, thy gardens, as it may be rendered n; particular churches, well taken care of and watered; these make an orchard, or are like one, even a paradise, as the word o signifies: it is generally thought to be a Persic word; see Nehemiah 2:8; but Hillerus p derives it from פרר, to "separate", it being a garden, separated and enclosed as before; one like Eden's garden, exceeding pleasant and delightful: and not like an orchard of any sort of trees, but of "pomegranates", of which there were plenty in Canaan, hence called a "land of pomegranates", Deuteronomy 8:8; many places in it had their names from thence, Joshua 15:32. To which believers in Christ may be compared, for the various sorts of them q, for their largeness, fruitfulness, and uprightness; saints have gifts and grace, differing from one another as to size, but all pomegranates, trees of righteousness; some are larger, and excel others, are full of all the fruits of righteousness; but all are, more or less, fruitful and upright in heart: and so the saints of the higher class may be here designed, as those of a lower are by other trees and spices after mentioned;

with pleasant fruits; that are valuable, precious, and desirable, of which an enumeration follows:

camphire, with spikenard; or "cypresses", or "cyprusses with nards" r; both in the plural number: the former may intend cypress trees, so called on account of their berries and fruits growing in clusters; see Song of Solomon 1:14; and the latter, because there are different sorts of them, as "nardus Italica", "Indica", and "Celtica": to these saints may be compared, because pleasant and delightful, of a sweet smell, and rare and excellent.

n Vid. Guisium in Misn. Sheviith, c. 2. s. 2. o פרדס παραδεισος, Sept. "paradisus", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Marckius, Michaelis. p Onomastic. Sacr. p. 291. q Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 19. r So Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

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 13. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates — This seems to refer to the fecundity of the bride or Jewish queen; to the former it would be a prediction; to the latter, a statement of what had already taken place. The word פרדס pardes, which we translate an orchard, is the same which has given birth to our paradise, a garden of pleasure. The other expressions, in this and the following verse, seem to refer wholly to matters of a connubial nature.


 
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