Song of Solomon 4:13
in Song of Solomon 4Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants,
KJV
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
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This verse in Song of Solomon 4
Commentary
14 notes on this verseIn order that we may know the plants that the Word cultivates in believers, the Song calls the trees he planted "pomegranates." These issue from the bride's mouth. The pomegranate is difficult for a thief to grasp because of its thorny branches, and its fruit is surrounded and protected by a rind bitter and harsh to the taste.
This site's exposition
A garden inclosed
on Song of Solomon 4:12-15
A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed: the poem's most quoted figure, chastity as a garden kept for one, water sealed against every other claim. The catalogue that follows plants the garden with the ancient world's whole spice trade, camphire, spikenard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh and aloes, most of them imports from Arabia and India, which the material-culture rows carry; the catalogue is read once as abundance rather than item by item. The figure turns at verse 15: the sealed fountain is at the same time a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, closed to strangers and flowing for its own, and the older writers set the living-water vocabulary beside Jer 2:13 and John 4:10 by name as their reading.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"Pomegranate" is to be taken figuratively as love, since countless seeds are contained together within the one skin, pressed together without squeezing or ruining one another, remaining fresh unless one of the seeds in the middle goes bad. You can also gain a different insight …
But that the Church is one, the Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, saying, in the person of Christ, "My dove, my undefiled, is one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her." Concerning which also He says again, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring sealed up, a well of living water." But if the spouse of Christ, which is the Church, is a garden enclosed; a thing that is closed up cannot lie open to strangers and profane persons. And if it is a fountain sealed, he who, being placed without has no access to the spring, can neither drink thence nor be sealed. And the well also of living water, if it is one and the same within, he who is placed without cannot be quickened and sanctified from that water of which it is only granted to those who are within to make any use, or to drink.
The Medieval Church3 voices
Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates, etc. Because the early Church, which was at Jerusalem, produced many people for God from water and the Spirit, it is rightly said that the sacred garden, assisted by the irrigation of the divine fountain, emitted a paradise, …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 17 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
For the soul is a paradise in which Scripture is planted, and it has marvelous aspects of sweetness and beauty. Hence in the Canticle: My sister, my spouse is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. Thy plants are a paradise of …
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
What does holy Church send forth, if not holy words together with holy works, by which she begets and nourishes her children? When she leads some all the way to martyrdom and instructs others in holy conduct — sending the former, red with the blood …
7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening5 voices
The Old-Testament church was a garden enclosed by the partition wall of the ceremonial law. The Bible was then a spring shut up and a fountain sealed; it was confined to one nation; but now the wall of separation is removed, the gospel preached to every nation, and in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew.
It is not like the vineyard of the man void of understanding, that was all grown over with thorns and nettles; but here are fruits, pleasant fruits, all trees of frankincense, and all the chief spices,
Plants - Believers, which are planted in thee, are like the plants or fruits of an orchard, which are pleasant to the eye, and delicious to the taste or smell, whereby he signifies the variety and excellency of the gifts and graces in the several members of the church.
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates,....
She ascribes all she had that was valuable in her to him, and depends upon the continued influence of his grace to make her more and more acceptable to him,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
orchard--Hebrew, "a paradise," that is, a pleasure-ground and orchard. Not only flowers, but fruit trees (Joh 15:8;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
A locked garden. This refers to the modesty of the daughters of Yisroel, who are not of loose morals. 60 Alternatively, ‘גן’ refers to the Pentateuch which has fifty-three sidros, the numerical value of ‘גן’. (Gra)
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שְׁלָחַ֙יִךְ֙ | shelachayikh | shoots your | H7973 → | |
| פַּרְדֵּ֣ס | pardes | [are] a garden of | H6508 → | |
| רִמּוֹנִ֔ים | rimonim | pomegranates | H7416 → | 32 times |
| עִ֖ם | ʾim | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| פְּרִ֣י | peri | fruit of | H6529 → | 119 times |
| מְגָדִ֑ים | megadim | choice<s> | H4022 → | 8 times |
| כְּפָרִ֖ים | kefarim | henna plants | H3724 → | |
| עִם־ | ʾim- | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| נְרָדִֽים׃ | neradim | nard plants | H5373 → | 3 times |
שְׁלָחַ֙יִךְ֙shoots your
shelachayikhH7973 →
פַּרְדֵּ֣ס[are] a garden of
pardesH6508 →
רִמּוֹנִ֔יםpomegranates
rimonimH7416 →32 times
עִ֖םwith
ʾimH5973 →1050 times
פְּרִ֣יfruit of
periH6529 →119 times
מְגָדִ֑יםchoice<s>
megadimH4022 →8 times
כְּפָרִ֖יםhenna plants
kefarimH3724 →
עִם־with
ʾim-H5973 →1050 times
נְרָדִֽים׃nard plants
neradimH5373 →3 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Song of Solomon 1:12While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
it leads to
- John 12:3
Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the…
- Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
- Mark 14:3
While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke open the…
- Philippians 4:18
I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
- Matthew 22:11
But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes.
- John 12:3
Through
Song of Solomon 6:11I went down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 7:12
Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love.
- Song of Solomon 7:12
Through
Ecclesiastes 2:5I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 6:2
My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Song of Solomon 6:2
Through
Song of Solomon 1:14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi.
it leads to
- Joshua 15:62
Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah, Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En-gedi—six cities, along with their villages.
- Joshua 15:62
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 17; Cyprian, Epistle LXXV:2; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Gregory of Nyssa, HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4 and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4.