His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
Parallel translations
- WEB His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
- BSB His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
- NKJV His cheeks are like a bed of spices, Banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies, Dripping liquid myrrh.
- NASB “His cheeks are like a bed of balsam, Banks of herbal spices; His lips are lilies Dripping with drops of myrrh.
- NLT His cheeks are like gardens of spices giving off fragrance. His lips are like lilies, perfumed with myrrh.
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
His cheeks and lips are fragrant and pleasant, like beds of spices and lilies dripping with myrrh. His presence and his words are sweet and welcome.
Overview
Spices and myrrh evoke costly fragrance, and lilies suggest beauty and refreshment. The picture is of a beloved whose face and speech are delightful to be near. Many readers see here an echo of the believer's experience of Christ, whose words are gracious and whose name is 'as ointment poured forth' (1:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Song 1:10Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
- Song 2:1I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
- Song 6:2My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
- Song 4:11Thy 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.
- Isa 50:6I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
- Luke 4:22And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
- Ps 4:6–7There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
- Ps 89:15Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
- Ps 27:4One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
- Ps 45:2Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
- Rev 21:23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
- Song 5:5I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
- Song 3:6Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
- Isa 50:4The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
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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 5:13 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.