How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.
Parallel translations
- WEB How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
- KJV How 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!
- NKJV How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, And the scent of your perfumes Than all spices!
- NASB “How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much sweeter is your love than wine, And the fragrance of your oils Than that of all kinds of balsam oils!
- NLT Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices.
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 praises his bride's love as better than wine and her fragrance above all spices. It exalts the sweetness of her love.
Overview
He marvels at how beautiful her love is, surpassing wine and every spice, echoing her earlier praise of him (1:2). The mutual exchange of delight marks healthy, reciprocal love. The surpassing sweetness of love pictures the joy of communion that the Lord and His people share (Song 1:2; Ps. 36:7-8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Song 1:2–4Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is more delightful than wine.
- Song 7:6How fair and pleasant you are, O love, with your delights!
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Song 3:6Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?
- Phil 4:18I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
- Song 1:12While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
- Song 5:5I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.
- 2 Cor 1:21–22Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,
- Rev 5:8When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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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 4:10 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.