Song of Solomon 4 · a question people ask
Who is speaking in this chapter?
The chapter doesn't name anyone. The WEB marks no speaker in 4:1-16, and the Hebrew has no speakers' names at all. What the Hebrew does show is who is spoken to. Wherever 4:1-15 say you and your, the Hebrew forms are feminine, so the words are said to a woman: "Behold, you are beautiful, my love" (4:1), "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride" (4:9). The one speaking says I and me (4:6, 4:8, 4:9), and those words don't show whether the speaker is a man or a woman. In 4:16 the words turn to the winds, "Awake, north wind, and come, you south!" (4:16), and then say, "Let my beloved come into his garden" (4:16): my beloved there is a man, and the verse doesn't say who calls him that. So these notes say the speaker, as the introduction to the Song does, and don't supply a name.
The verses
“Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.”
“Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.”
“Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.”
“Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.”