Song of Solomon4:5

Previous Verse Next Verse

Paraphrase

Your balanced ability to nurture never lacks balanced energy and newness,

it is full of vigor and grace,

a vigor that gains vitality by recognizing beauty in things around you.

Footnotes

1: "two"

“two” was a indication of “balance”. Two things that are different, or even opposites, balance each other; examples are the left and the right, the North and the South, the weak and the strong, etc.

2: "breasts"

Breasts represent nourishment. Often a wife will push herself past the limits of her strength and energy in order to provide the atmosphere and service her family needs. This may be a young mother staying up all night with a sick baby, or a wife well along in years making one more trip down those stairs to put in another load of laundry. Wives that serve sacrificially and never stop nurturing are to be praised. God can and does give new energy.

3: "fawns"

Fawns are symbols of new energy.

4: "twin"

The idea of “two or twins” was also a symbol of completeness or fullness; if something has the balance created by bringing the two extremities together, it is complete.

5: "gazelle"

A gazelle called to mind vigor and grace.

6: "graze"

Grazing means to “satisfy one’s basic needs.”

7: "lillies"

Lilies were splashes of colorful beauty in the midst of an otherwise ordinary landscape. Solomon’s wife is not the only beautiful thing in the picture, she also benefits by seeing beauty in others, beauty of character, of heart, and the beauty of what God has created. Thus she is both a source of beauty, and is energized by beauty. I am constantly amazed at how balanced the Song is.