“Your lips drip honey, my bride; Honey and milk are under your tongue, And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
- KJV Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
- BSB Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
- NKJV Your lips, O my spouse, Drip as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue; And the fragrance of your garments Is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
- NLT Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon.
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
Her lips and speech are sweet as honey and milk, her garments fragrant. It praises her words and presence as delightful.
Overview
Honey and milk under her tongue and the scent of Lebanon on her garments depict her speech and presence as sweet and pleasing. Gracious words are themselves a delight (Prov. 16:24). The sweetness of the bride's words reflects the loveliness the Lord works in His people, whose speech becomes seasoned with grace (Col. 4:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Song 5:1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
- Song 7:9Your mouth like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
- Gen 27:27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.
- Song 5:13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
- Hos 14:6–7His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.
- Song 4:3Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
- Prov 5:3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
- Isa 7:15He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
- Ps 71:23–24My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!
- Prov 16:24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- Heb 13:15Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.
- Prov 24:13–14My son, eat honey, for it is good; the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
- Ps 45:8All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
- Ps 71:14–15But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.
- Ps 19:10More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
- Hos 14:2Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
- Song 4:10How 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!
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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 4:11 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.