Read & explore together
The Bride Confesses Her Love
This song uses rich images to speak about love and attraction. The passage moves between voices that praise, ask, answer and admire. Reading it as poetry helps us stay close to its comparisons and repeated words.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
Song of Solomon 1:1-17 is presented as a song and marks speakers as Beloved, Lover and Friends. In these verses, the Beloved speaks of kisses, fragrance, her darkened skin and vineyard work, asks where the one she loves may be found, and then the voices exchange words of praise.
Song of Solomon 1:1–17Main takeaway
This passage expresses love through poetic images, direct speech and mutual praise.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Love compared to wine and fragranceThe song begins with desire for kisses and the statement that this love is better than wine.
Explanation
The song begins with desire for kisses and the statement that this love is better than wine. Scent imagery follows: pleasing oils and a name like oil poured out. The Friends join the praise, saying they will rejoice and praise this love. The language is lyrical and comparative.
02Her own words about appearance and workThe Beloved says, “I am dark, but lovely”, using comparisons to Kedar’s tents and Solomon’s curtains.
Explanation
The Beloved says, “I am dark, but lovely”, using comparisons to Kedar’s tents and Solomon’s curtains. She asks the daughters of Jerusalem not to stare because the sun has scorched her. She explains, “My mother’s sons were angry with me” and “They made me keeper of the vineyards.”
03A question and an answerShe asks the one her soul loves where he grazes his flock and rests it at noon, not wanting to be “as one who is veiled” beside other flocks.
Explanation
She asks the one her soul loves where he grazes his flock and rests it at noon, not wanting to be “as one who is veiled” beside other flocks. The Lover answers by calling her “most beautiful among women” and directing her to follow the sheep’s tracks.
04Mutual praise in vivid picturesThe Lover compares her to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots and praises her cheeks and neck. The Friends speak of gold and silver jewellery.
Explanation
The Lover compares her to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots and praises her cheeks and neck. The Friends speak of gold and silver jewellery. The Beloved answers with perfume, myrrh and henna blossoms. At the end, both call each other beautiful, and their shared place is pictured with green, cedar and fir.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What comparisons shape the opening praise of love?
Look for the images of wine, oils and poured-out oil, and notice how they describe love and name.
02What reasons does the Beloved give when she asks people not to stare at her?
Stay with her exact explanation about the sun, her mother’s sons and being made keeper of the vineyards.
03How do the speakers praise one another near the end of the passage?
List the images used, such as the steed, jewellery, perfume, myrrh, henna, doves and the house of cedar and fir.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Song of Solomon 1:1–17
1The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. Beloved
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.
3Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you.
4Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. Friends We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! Beloved They are right to love you.
5I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.
6Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.
7Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? Lover
8If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
9I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.
10Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. Friends
11We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver. Beloved
12While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
13My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.
14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. Lover
15Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves. Beloved
16Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant. Lover
17The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.