Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant.
- BSB How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how delightful! The soft grass is our bed.
- NKJV Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also our bed is green.
- NASB ¶“How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!
- NLT You are so handsome, my love, pleasing beyond words! The soft grass is our bed;
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 bride returns the praise, calling her beloved handsome and pleasant, and delights in their green resting place. It shows mutual love and shared joy.
Overview
She echoes his praise, calling him beautiful and pleasant, and rejoices that their couch is the verdant outdoors. Love here is reciprocal and at ease in God's good creation. The mutual delight pictures the joy of covenant fellowship, where the believer also finds the Lord altogether lovely (Song 5:16).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Song 2:3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
- Ps 45:2Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
- Zech 9:17For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
- Rev 5:11–13And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
- Song 5:10–16My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
- Ps 110:3Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
- Song 3:7Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
- Phil 3:8–9Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
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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 1:16 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.