Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Song of Solomon 4:5 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 5. 5Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse compares breasts to twin gazelles feeding among lilies.
A wasf looks at her from eyes to breasts without taking her voice away
This verse is one part of that explanation in Song of Solomon 4:1-7. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Song of Solomon 4:1-7
Read Song of Solomon 4:5 with 4:1-7. This verse compares breasts to twin gazelles feeding among lilies. 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 compares breasts to twin gazelles feeding among lilies.
Follow the Context
- Repeated beauty frames the description.
- Eyes, hair, and teeth are compared with doves, goats, and washed sheep.
- Lips, speech, and temples receive color and fruit images.
- The neck becomes a fortified tower carrying shields.
- Breasts become twin gazelles among lilies before the closing whole-body praise.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“two young roes that are twins”
In plain language: paired living animals within a lily landscape
compares breasts to twin gazelles feeding among lilies. The erotic image emphasizes living movement and paired beauty rather than an anatomical specification.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk requiring the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The twin image does not prescribe breast symmetry, size, age, lactation, fertility, or public availability.
What Remains True
The erotic image emphasizes living movement and paired beauty rather than an anatomical specification.
How It Can Shape Life
- Do not use the verse to evaluate or comment on someone's breasts without welcome.
Teach It Back
Explain how Song of Solomon 4:5 contributes to Song of Solomon 4:1-7. Include what the surrounding lines add, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Song of Solomon 4:1-7 — A Wasf of the Woman's BeautySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The point of comparison and relation to 4:6 are poetic rather than clinically recoverable.
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 ↗