1“I am the rose of Sharon,
         The lily of the valleys.”

2“Like a lily among the thorns,
         So is my darling among the maidens.”

3“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
         So is my beloved among the young men.
         In his shade I took great delight and sat down,
         And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4“He has brought me to his banquet hall,
         And his banner over me is love.

5“Sustain me with raisin cakes,
         Refresh me with apples,
         Because I am lovesick.

6“Let his left hand be under my head
         And his right hand embrace me.”

7“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
         By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
         That you do not arouse or awaken my love
         Until she pleases.”

8“Listen! My beloved!
         Behold, he is coming,
         Climbing on the mountains,
         Leaping on the hills!

9“My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
         Behold, he is standing behind our wall,
         He is looking through the windows,
         He is peering through the lattice.

10“My beloved responded and said to me,
         ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
         And come along.

11‘For behold, the winter is past,
         The rain is over and gone.

12‘The flowers have already appeared in the land;
         The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
         And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

13‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,
         And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
         Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
         And come along!’”

14“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
         In the secret place of the steep pathway,
         Let me see your form,
         Let me hear your voice;
         For your voice is sweet,
         And your form is lovely.”

15“Catch the foxes for us,
         The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards,
         While our vineyards are in blossom.”

16“My beloved is mine, and I am his;
         He pastures his flock among the lilies.

17“Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away,
         Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle
         Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.”

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"I am the rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys."

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily growing in the valleys.

King James Bible
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.

Darby Bible Translation
I am a narcissus of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.

English Revised Version
I AM a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

Webster's Bible Translation
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

World English Bible
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Lover

Young's Literal Translation
As a lily among the thorns,

Cross References

1 Chronicles 5:16 They lived in Gilead, in Bashan and in its towns, and in all the pasture lands of Sharon, as far as their borders.

Song of Solomon 5:13 "His cheeks are like a bed of balsam, Banks of sweet-scented herbs; His lips are lilies Dripping with liquid myrrh.

Song of Solomon 6:2 "My beloved has gone down to his garden, To the beds of balsam, To pasture his flock in the gardens And gather lilies.

Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and pines away, Lebanon is shamed and withers; Sharon is like a desert plain, And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.

Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus

Isaiah 35:2 It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God.

Hosea 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

In this chapter, I. Christ speaks both concerning himself and concerning his church (v. 1, 2). II. The church speaks 1. Remembering the pleasure and satisfaction she has in communion with Christ (v. 3, 4). 2. Entertaining herself with the present tokens of his favour and taking care that nothing happen to intercept them (v. 5-7). 3. Triumphing in his approaches towards her (v. 8, 9). 4. Repeating the gracious calls he had given her to go along with him a walking, invited by the pleasures of the returning spring (v. 10-13), out of her obscurity (v. 14), and the charge he had given to the servants to destroy that which would be hurtful to his vineyard (v. 15). 5. Rejoicing in her interest in him (v. 16). 6. Longing for his arrival (v. 17). Those whose hearts are filled with love to Christ, and hope of heaven, know best what these things mean.

Verses 1-2

See here, I. What Christ is pleased to compare himself to; and he condescends very much in the comparison. He that is the Son of the Highest, the bright and morning star, calls and owns himself the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, to express his presence with his people in this world, the easiness of their access to him, and the beauty and sweetness which they find in him, and to teach them to adorn themselves with him, as shepherds and shepherdesses, when they appeared gay, were decked with roses and lilies, garlands and chaplets of flowers. The rose, for beauty and fragrance, is the chief of flowers, and our Saviour prefers the clothing of the lily before that of Solomon in all his glory. Christ is the rose of Sharon, where probably the best roses grew and in most plenty, the rose of the field (so some), denoting that the gospel salvation is a common salvation; it lies open to all; whoever will may come and gather the rose-buds of privileges and comforts that grow in the covenant of grace. He is not a rose locked up in a garden, but all may come and receive benefit by him and comfort in him. He is a lily for whiteness, a lily of the valleys for sweetness, for those which we call so yield a strong perfume. He is a lily of the valleys, or low places, in his humiliation, exposed to injury. Humble souls see most beauty in him. Whatever he is to others, to those that are in the valleys he is a lily. He is the rose, the lily; there is none besides. Whatever excellence is in Christ, it is in him singularly and in the highest degree.

II. What he is pleased to compare his church to, v. 2. 1. She is as a lily; he himself is the lily (v. 1), she is as the lily. The beauty of believers consists in their conformity and resemblance to Jesus Christ. They are his love, and so they are as lilies, for those are made like Christ in whose hearts his love is shed abroad. 2. As a lily among thorns, as a lily compared with thorns. The church of Christ as far excels all other societies as a bed of roses excels a bush of thorns. As a lily compassed with thorns. The wicked, the daughters of this world, such as have no love to Christ, are as thorns, worthless and useless, good for nothing but to stop a gap; nay, they are noxious and hurtful; they came in with sin and are a fruit of the curse; they choke good seed, and hinder good fruit, and their end is to be burned. God's people are as lilies among them, scratched and torn, shaded and obscured, by them; they are dear to Christ, and yet exposed to hardships and troubles in the world; they must expect it, for they are planted among thorns (Eze. 2:6), but they are nevertheless dear to him; he does not overlook nor undervalue any of his lilies for their being among thorns, When they are among thorns they must still be as lilies, must maintain their innocency and purity, and, though they are among thorns, must not be turned into thorns, must not render railing for railing, and, if they thus preserve their character, they shall be still owned as conformable to Christ. Grace in the soul is a lily among thorns; corruptions are thorns in the flesh (2 Co. 12:7), are as Canaanites to God's Israel (Jos. 23:13); but the lily that is now among thorns shall shortly be transplanted out of this wilderness into that paradise where there is no pricking brier nor grieving thorn, Eze. 28:24.

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New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

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