“Your cheeks are delightful with jewelry, Your neck with strings of beads.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.
- KJV Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
- BSB Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
- NKJV Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, Your neck with chains of gold. The Daughters of Jerusalem
- NLT How lovely are your cheeks; your earrings set them afire! How lovely is your neck, enhanced by a string of jewels.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He admires her adorned cheeks and jeweled neck. It continues his loving praise of her beauty.
Overview
The ornaments of earrings and strings of jewels frame and enhance her natural beauty. Such tender, specific praise nurtures love. The adorning of the bride foreshadows the church made beautiful and arrayed by her Lord, who delights to clothe His people in His own gifts of grace (Isa. 61:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ezek 16:11–13I decked you with ornaments. put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck.
- 1 Pet 3:4but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.
- Song 5:13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
- Gen 24:47I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her hands.
- Gen 24:22As the camels had done drinking, the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,
- Prov 1:9for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.
- Num 31:50We have brought Yahweh’s offering, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, armlets, and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh.”
- Isa 3:18–21In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,
- Gen 41:42Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck,
- 2 Pet 1:3–4seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue;
- Song 4:9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
- Isa 61:10I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The poetry of covenant love between bride and bridegroom pictures, at its highest, the love of Christ for his church — the Bridegroom who gave himself for his bride.
How Song of Songs 1:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.