Verse Lens · Concise explanation

Song of Solomon 4:3 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 3. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse praises lips, speech, and temples through scarlet thread and pomegranate.

Read It With

  • Song of Solomon 4:1-7

Read Song of Solomon 4:3 with 4:1-7. This verse praises lips, speech, and temples through scarlet thread and pomegranate. The complete unit establishes this movement: A masculine-coded voice praises the woman's eyes, hair, teeth, lips, speech, temples, neck, and breasts through animal, fruit, color, architecture, military, and landscape images, concluding that she is wholly beautiful.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The poem moves from public royal display to intimate verbal attention, allowing a beloved body to become a landscape of abundance and strength. Within that movement, this verse praises lips, speech, and temples through scarlet thread and pomegranate.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“thy speech is comely”

In plain language: the beloved's spoken voice is part of her beauty

praises lips, speech, and temples through scarlet thread and pomegranate. Color, sound, and hidden fruit imagery combine in intimate attention.

Why it matters: The wording identifies this verse's distinct contribution to the complete unit.

How certain? strong

What Remains True

Color, sound, and hidden fruit imagery combine in intimate attention.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Affirm speech as well as appearance.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Song of Solomon 4:1-7 — A Wasf of the Woman's Beauty
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: Song of Solomon 4:1-7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Song of Songs

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, speaker-gender signals, wordplay, poetic clauses, and translation questions.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Song.xml, 4:1-7

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: The Song of Songs with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, literary, historical, and translation alternatives.

Exact location: NET Bible Song of Songs PDF, printed pp. 1242-1243, translation and notes on 4:1-7

Open source ↗
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