Song of Solomon 4 · Verse 12

Song of Solomon 4:12

A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Song of Solomon 4:12, King James Version

Song of Solomon 4:12 in other translations

BSBMy sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
WEBMy sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
ASVA garden shut up is my sister, my bride; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
YLTA garden shut up is my sister-spouse, A spring shut up--a fountain sealed.
DARBYA garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
BBEA garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut up, a spring of water stopped.
WebsterA garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

What does Song of Solomon 4:12 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
12. The Hebrew has no "is." Here she is distinct from the garden (So 5:1), yet identified with it (So 4:16) as being one with Him in His sufferings. Historically the Paradise, into which the soul of Jesus Christ entered at death; and the tomb of Joseph, in which His body was laid amid "myrrh," &c. (So 4:6), situated in a nicely kept garden (compare "gardener," Joh 20:15); "sealed" with a stone (Mt 27:66); in which it resembles "wells" in the East (Ge 29:3, 8). It was in a garden of light Adam fell; in a garden of darkness, Gethsemane, and chiefly that of the tomb, the second Adam retrieved us. Spiritually the garden is the gospel kingdom of heaven. Here all is ripe; previously (So 2:13) it was "the tender grape." The garden is His, though He calls the plants hers (So 4:13) by His gift (Is 61:3, end). spring ... fountain--Jesus Christ (Joh 4:10) sealed, while He was in the sealed tomb: it poured forth its full tide on Pentecost (Joh 7:37-39). Still He is a sealed fountain until the Holy Ghost opens it to one (1Co 12:3). The Church also is "a garden enclosed" (Psa 4:3; Is 5:1, &c.). Contrast Psa 80:9-12. So "a spring" (Is 27:3; 58:11); "sealed" (Ep 4:30; 2Ti 2:19). As wives in the East are secluded from public gaze, so believers (Psa 83:3; Col 3:3). Contrast the open streams which "pass away" (Job 6:15-18; 2Pe 2:17).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 12 A garden enclosed - a spring shut up, a fountain sealed - Different expressions to point out the fidelity of the bride, or of the Jewish queen. See the outlines. She is unsullied, a chaste, pure virgin. None has ever entered into this garden; none has yet tasted of this spring; the seal of this fountain has never been broken. Among the Athenians, the interior part of the house, called the women's apartment, was not only locked but sealed; so Aristophan., Thesmoph. ver. 422: - Ειτα δια τουτον ταις γυναικωνιτισιν Σφραγιδας εμβαλλουσιν ηδη και μοχλους. And on this account, to the women's apartment They place seals as well as bolts. And seal, as applicable to chaste conduct, is a phrase well known to the Greeks. Aeschylus, in the Agamemnon, praises a woman, σημαντη ριον ουδεν διαφψειρασαν, who had not violated her seal of conjugal faith. But Nonnus, lib. ii., uses the form of speech exactly as Solomon does with reference to a pure virgin; he says, Αψαυστον ἑης σφρηγιδα κορειης; "She had preserved the seal of her virginity untouched." All this is plain; but how many will make metaphors out of metaphors!

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Song of Solomon 4:8-15

Observe the gracious call Christ gives to the church. It is, 1. A precept; so this is Christ's call to his church to come off from the world. These hills seem pleasant, but there are in them lions' dens; they are mountains of the leopards. 2. As a promise; many shall be brought as members of the church, from every point. The church shall be delivered from her persecutors in due time, though now she dwells among…

Read the full comment on Song of Solomon 4:8-15 →

Song of Solomon 4:12 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

גַּ֥ן\׀gan[is] a gardenH1588
נָע֖וּלna.'UllockedH5274
אֲחֹתִ֣י'a.cho.Tisister myH269
כַלָּ֑הkha.LahbrideH3618
גַּ֥לgala springH1530
נָע֖וּלna.'UllockedH5274
מַעְיָ֥ןma'.Yana springH4599
חָתֽוּם\׃cha.Tumsealed upH2856

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Song of Solomon 4:12

  • Proverbs 5:15-18

    Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

  • Revelation 21:27

    And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:13

    Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

  • Isaiah 61:10-11

    I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

  • Revelation 7:3

    Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

    What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

  • 1 Corinthians 7:34

    There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

  • Jeremiah 31:12

    Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

  • Song of Solomon 6:2

    My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

  • Ephesians 1:13

    In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

  • Isaiah 58:11

    And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

  • Ephesians 4:30

    And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
garden.
6:2,11; Pr 5:15-18; Isa 58:11; 61:10,11; Jer 31:12; Ho 6:3
1Co 6:13,19,20; 7:34; Re 21:27
inclosed. Heb. barred. sealed.
2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30; Re 7:3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Song of Solomon 4:11

    Thy 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.

  • Song of Solomon 4:12

    A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

  • Song of Solomon 4:13

    Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Read all of Song of Solomon 4

Song of Solomon 4:12 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Huerto cerrado eres, mi hermana, esposa mía; fuente cerrada, fuente sellada.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Tu es un jardin clos, ma sœur, ma fiancée, une source fermée, une fontaine scellée.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ein verschlossener Garten ist meine Schwester, meine Braut, ein verschlossener Born, eine versiegelte Quelle.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus.