What happensPermalink
The man praises the woman from her eyes and hair down to her breasts, using images of goats, sheep, scarlet, towers, gazelles, and lilies. He calls her altogether beautiful and says she has captured his heart. Calling her “my sister, my bride,” he praises her lips, fragrance, and garments, then pictures her as a locked garden and sealed spring filled with choice spices. She answers by inviting her beloved to enter his garden and enjoy its fruit.
Why it mattersPermalink
The Song speaks directly and joyfully about the woman’s body. Its culturally distant comparisons communicate abundance, grace, dignity, and the lover’s delight instead of literal resemblance. “My sister, my bride” is ancient language of affectionate bridal intimacy. The enclosed garden suggests sexual and personal exclusivity; her final invitation makes their intimacy mutual, freely offered, and received within committed love.
Key versePermalink
You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.