Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 4:13
Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The male speaker addresses his bride, continuing the botanical metaphor introduced in Song of Solomon 4:12 where he calls her a locked garden. He enumerates the plants and fruits that constitute her branches to describe her cultivated beauty.
The words — The text uses פַּרְדֵּס (pardes) for "orchard," denoting an enclosed cultivated garden, and רִמּוֹנִים (rimonim) for "pomegranates," a symbol of fertility. It pairs these with כְּפָרִים (kefarim) for henna and שְׁלָחַיִךְ (shelaḥayik) for your shoots, emphasizing the bride's structured, growing branches.
The thread — This imagery runs directly into Song of Solomon 4:14, which continues listing aromatic plants like nard, saffron, and myrrh. The enclosed garden motif echoes Ecclesiastes 2:5, where a ruler plants a park of fruit trees, while the specific plants connect to Song of Solomon 1:14 and Song of Solomon 6:11.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to see the bride's body and character as an ordered, cultivated space rather than wild growth. It frames intimate union within the context of deliberate agricultural care and abundant yield.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 1:14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi.
- Ecclesiastes 2:5 I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees.
- Song of Solomon 6:11 I went down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom.
- Song of Solomon 1:12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
- Psalms 92:14 In old age they will still bear fruit; healthy and green they will remain,
- Song of Solomon 4:14 with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.
- Song of Solomon 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love.
- Song of Solomon 8:2 I would lead you and bring you to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.
- Isaiah 60:21 Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.