Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves.
- BSB How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
- NKJV Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes. The Shulamite
- NASB ¶“How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”
- NLT How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
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
The beloved repeats that she is beautiful, praising her dove-like eyes. It conveys his tender, delighted admiration.
Overview
He twice calls her beautiful and likens her eyes to doves, suggesting gentleness, purity, and devotion. The repetition underlines genuine delight. So the Lord beholds His people as lovely, not by their own worth but as those made fair in His sight (Song 4:7; Eph. 5:27).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Song 4:1Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
- Song 5:12His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
- Song 4:7Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.
- Eph 1:17–18That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
- 2 Cor 11:2–3For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
- Song 5:2I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
- Song 1:8If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
- Song 4:10How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!
- Mal 2:14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
- Song 7:6How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
- Song 2:10My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
- Song 6:4Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
- Song 2:13The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
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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 1:15 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.