Song of Solomon 4:5
in Song of Solomon 4Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy two breasts are like two fawns That are twins of a roe, Which feed among the lilies.
KJV
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
⋯
This verse in Song of Solomon 4
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd in the song of the bride, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, the neck, and breasts, are praised by the bridegroom. The bride is either the soul of man, which enters into marriage with Christ, or the church. The parts of the body are interpreted figuratively: if they are said of the soul, then they apply to its powers.
This site's exposition
thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks
on Song of Solomon 4:1-5
The chapter opens the poem's first full praise song, an ordered description from the eyes downward, and the form is stated once: the images compare the bride to the best of a shepherd's world, a flock of goats streaming dark down Gilead, shorn ewes white from the washing with never a lamb lost, a thread of scarlet, the tower of David hung with the shields of mighty men. The comparisons are of impression rather than outline, as Delitzsch insists: the teeth are not like sheep in shape but in matched whiteness and completeness, the neck not like a tower in size but in adorned dignity. The exposition reads the frankness of verse 5 as the married love it celebrates, with the site's surface kept plain and the poem's own decorum trusted.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church4 voices
Your two breasts, etc. The same mysteries of Christ and the Church are repeated in various ways and in many forms, but repeated they always bring something new, which either provides an explanation for the same mysteries or through the novelty itself, delights the minds …
Those who are fed among the lilies, etc. The holy teachers are nourished by the pure and resplendent flowers of the divine Scriptures, and lest the milk of salvific doctrine, with which they feed the little ones, should lack, they always read in the writings …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book 24.17 · Written before 604.
proposed
And hence in the Song of Songs it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the bridegroom, "Thy two breasts are like two twin kids of the she goat, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathe, and the shadows incline." For what are the two breasts, except the two peoples coming from Jewry and from among the Gentiles, who are implanted in the body of Holy Church, by the purpose of wisdom, upon the secret of the heart. And they who are elected from these people, are compared to the young of the she-goat, because they are conscious through their humility that they are weak and sinful; but if any obstacles meet them in the way of worldly impediment, as they are hastening on by the power of love, they bound over them, and with the leaps of contemplation climb to the knowledge of heavenly things. And in order to do this, they study the examples of the Saints who have gone before. Whence they are said to feed amongst the lilies. For what is meant by lilies, but the conduct of those who say with all truth, "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ?" The Elect, therefore, in order to gain strength to attain the highest eminence, feed themselves to the full by beholding the sweet-scented and pure life of the just.
A commentator
Robert of TombelaineCommentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4 · Written in the 11th century.
proposed
By the two breasts, two orders of preachers are designated: one in circumcision, the other in uncircumcision. They are fittingly called like two fawns of a doe, because they are children of the Synagogue and feed on the mountains of contemplation. They are called twins …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins,.... Or, "two fawns, the twins of a doe": Providence, as Plutarch observes (p), has given to women two breasts, that, should they have twins, both might have a fountain of nourishment; and are fitly compared to twins of the doe.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Some apply these to the two Testaments; others to the two sacraments, the seals of the covenant of grace; others to ministers, who are to be spiritual nurses to the children of God and to give out to them the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, and, in order to that, are themselves to feed among the lilies where Christ feeds ( ch. ii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thy two breasts are like two young roes - I have met with many attempts to support this similitude, or rather to show that there is a similitude; but I judge them unworthy of citation. The poet speaks the language of nature; and in a case of this kind, where the impassioned lover attempts to describe the different perfections of his bride, language often fails him, and his comparisons and similitudes are often without strict correctness. In love songs we have heard ladies’ necks compared to that of the swan, not only for its whiteness, but also for its length!
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The breastplate of the high priest was made of "two" pieces, folded one on the other, in which were the Urim and Thummim (lights and perfection). "Faith and love" are the double breastplate (1Th 5:8), answering to "hearing the word" and "keeping it," in a similar connection with breasts (Lu 12:27, 28). roes--He reciprocates her praise (So 2:9).
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שְׁנֵ֥י | shenei | [the] two | H8147 → | 768 times |
| שָׁדַ֛יִךְ | shadayikh | breasts your | H7699 → | 24 times |
| כִּשְׁנֵ֥י | kishnei | [are] like two | H8147 → | 768 times |
| עֳפָרִ֖ים | ʾofarim | fawns | H6082 → | 5 times |
| תְּאוֹמֵ֣י | teomei | twins of | H8380 → | |
| צְבִיָּ֑ה | tzeviyah | a gazelle | H6646 → | |
| הָרוֹעִ֖ים | haroim | which graze | H7462 → | 177 times |
| בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּֽים׃ | bashoshanim | among the lilies | H7799 → | 13 times |
שְׁנֵ֥י[the] two
sheneiH8147 →768 times
שָׁדַ֛יִךְbreasts your
shadayikhH7699 →24 times
כִּשְׁנֵ֥י[are] like two
kishneiH8147 →768 times
עֳפָרִ֖יםfawns
ʾofarimH6082 →5 times
תְּאוֹמֵ֣יtwins of
teomeiH8380 →
צְבִיָּ֑הa gazelle
tzeviyahH6646 →
הָרוֹעִ֖יםwhich graze
haroimH7462 →177 times
בַּשּׁוֹשַׁנִּֽים׃among the lilies
bashoshanimH7799 →13 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
1 Peter 2:2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
it leads to
- Hebrews 5:12–13
Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
- Ephesians 4:15
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
- 2 Peter 3:18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
- 1 Corinthians 3:1–2
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
- Mark 10:15
Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
- Hebrews 5:12–13
Through
Song of Solomon 6:3I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 7:10
I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Song of Solomon 2:16
My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
- Song of Solomon 7:10
Through
Song of Solomon 2:16My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 6:3
I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
- Song of Solomon 6:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Song of Solomon
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book 24.17; 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON LUKE 186 and Robert of Tombelaine, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4.