Song of Solomon 1:16

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
fair	יָפֶ֤ה ya.Peh	H3303	beautiful (literally or figuratively) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
beloved	דוֹדִי֙ do.Di	H1730	(figuratively) to love · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
pleasant	נָעִ֔ים na.'Im	H5273	delightful (objective or subjective · adjective, masculine singular absolute
bed	עַרְשֵׂ֖נוּ 'ar.Se.nu	H6210	a couch (properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
green	רַעֲנָנָֽה ra.'a.na.Nah	H7488	verdant · adjective, feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Song of Solomon 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his frui…
Psalms 45:2 Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Zechariah 9:17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
Psalms 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy yout…
Song of Solomon 3:7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
Song of Solomon 5:10-16 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Philippians 3:8-9 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the los…
Revelation 5:11-13 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thou…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

John Gill on Song of Solomon 1:16

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved,.... These are the words of the church, giving back to Christ his commendation of her, and much in the same words, as more properly belonging to him than her; he calls her "my love", she calls him "my beloved": he says that she was "fair"; the same she says of him, with a like note of wonder, attention, and asseveration, he had prefixed to the commendation of her; suggesting, that his fairness and beauty were essential, original, and underived, but hers was all from him; and therefore he only ought to have the character: he, as man, is "fairer" than the children of men; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth, which makes him look lovely in the eyes of his p…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 1:16-17

grass is our bed . . . branches are the beams . . . firs are the rafters: The lovers imagine that their luxurious surroundings of grass and overhanging trees are their house. She does not need the royal, palatial surroundings of a king since these God-created natural surroundings are more than enough for her and her true lover. • In a number of the poems the countryside is the place of happy intimacy. The man and the woman make their bed in the great outdoors and enjoy each other’s company.

Rashi on Song of Solomon 1:16

You are handsome, my beloved, most handsome. The beauty is not mine, but Yours; You are the handsome one. Most handsome. For You overlooked my transgressions and caused Your Shechinah to rest in our midst. This is the praise61By Yisroel to God. of the descent of the fire, “and all the people saw and shouted for joy.”62Vayikra 9:24. Indeed our bed is fresh. Through your pleasantness, behold our couch is fresh with our sons and daughters, all of whom gather unto You here, as it is said, “and the assembly was gathered, etc.”63Vayikra 8:4. The Tabernacle is called a bed, as it is stated, “Behold the bed of Shlomo,”64Below 3:7. and similarly, the [Beis] Hamikdosh is called a bed, as it is said…

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Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, and comely. As if it openly says: Indeed whatever beauty, simplicity, and spiritual grace I have, I have certainly received this through you, by whom I have also obtained forgiveness of sins and the efficacy of good action. But you are truly beautiful and comely without comparison, because you are God before the ages, always begotten from the Father, and when the time of my redemption came, conceived and born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin mother; not only free from all stain of iniquity, but also full of grace and truth, and you came into the world, and lived in the world; moreover, to all who partake of your grace, so that they too might be beautiful with virtues, you have given. Therefore, you are beautiful and comely, that is, wonderful both by the perpetuity of divine nature and the dignity of the assumed humanity. The splendor of whose beauty, because it usually becomes known to hearts at rest from exterior act, the more freely, the more clearly, according to that of the Psalmist, "Be at leisure and see that I am God" (Psalm 46)...
— Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs

Behold, you are beautiful, my kinsman; yes, comely. Our couch is shady. I seek the couch on which the bridegroom rests with the bride, and, unless I am mistaken, it is the human body. For that paralytic in the Gospel who lay on his couch — and was bidden by the Savior's voice, when his pallet had been taken up, to go into his house — before he was healed, was lying upon the weak body of his members, which afterward was made firm by the power of God. Thus, then, do I understand: Take up your pallet, and go into your house. For the Son of God had not descended from heavenly things to earthly for this, to give commands about little couches, and not to allow one rising from his sickness to depart without his little couch. Take up, he says, your pallet, and go into your house. And you too, therefore, healed by the Savior, take up your pallet, and go into your house, that when the bridegroom comes to you, his bride, and has reclined in it with you, you may say: Behold, my kinsman is the bridegroom; yes, comely. Our reclining is shady. Behold, my kinsman is beautiful: he is both beautiful and shady. For by day the sun shall not burn you, neither the moon by night.
— Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2

Our bed is in bloom. For sometimes the holy Church, as though in a bed with the Lord, indeed her Bridegroom, rests; sometimes it stands with Him against the enemies in the battlefield; it stands in the battlefield when, in the face of sharper assaults of temptations, it engages in the struggle of faith against the wicked even unto blood; but it rests in the bed when, as times smile with peace, it renders free service to Him, turning the serene gaze of the mind to behold the glory of His majesty. Hence, rightly is the same bed said to be in bloom, because indeed the saints enjoy the tranquility of the times, and then they especially dedicate themselves to sacred readings, fasts, prayers, and other fruits of the Spirit, when they refrain from the labors of tribulations. Then they elevate themselves higher in the contemplation of heavenly matters, when they receive a serene time free from external disturbances. Moreover, the bed of the Church can rightly be understood to be in bloom, not only because of the works of purity, through which each of the elect arrive at the fruit of eternal life, but also because of the offspring of the faithful, whom the Church herself customarily brings forth to God, fragrant with the bloom of faith, through water and spirit. To this action, which indeed the Lord cooperates with and confirms the word, she subjects herself more diligently the more she perceives a tranquil and peaceful time from the persecution of the envious by His granting. And it is to be noted that throughout the text of this little book, the bride always desires to remain in the house or in the bed or any other inner place with her Beloved, which is more fitting for the female sex; but the Bridegroom himself, which is fitting for the male, calls his friend to external works, namely, to the vineyards or gardens or other such things: because indeed the holy Church, if it could be, always desires to converse with the Lord in the peace of worldly tranquility, to propagate and nurture heavenly offspring for Him. But truly, He disposes that she be exercised with frequent tribulations in the present time, in order that she may come to eternal goods purer, and lest, if all temporal things perhaps run prosperous, delighted by the residence of the present exile, she might yearn less for the heavenly homeland. Therefore, the bride of Christ, desiring to live a quiet life…