Song of Solomon 4:12

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

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
garden	גַּ֥ן gan	H1588	a garden (as fenced) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
inclosed	נָע֖וּל na.'Ul	H5274	properly · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
sister	אֲחֹתִ֣י 'a.cho.Ti	H269	a sister (used very widely (like brother) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
spouse	כַלָּ֑ה kha.Lah	H3618	a bride (as if perfect) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
spring	גַּ֥ל gal	H1530	something rolled · noun, common masculine singular absolute
up	נָע֖וּל na.'Ul	H5274	properly · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
fountain	מַעְיָ֥ן ma'.Yan	H4599	a fountain (also collectively) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
sealed	חָתֽוּם cha.Tum	H2856	to close up · verb, qal passive participle, masculine 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

Proverbs 5:15-18 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
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 ar…
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 covere…
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;…
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?
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 bo…
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.
Genesis 29:3 And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again up…

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 4:12

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse,.... At a little distance from Bethlehem are pools of water, and below these runs a narrow rocky valley, enclosed on both sides with high mountains which the friars, as Mr. Maundrell says (d) will have to be the enclosed garden here alluded to; but it is more likely that the allusion is to a garden near Jerusalem, called the king's garden, Adrichomius (e) makes mention of, which was shut up, and only for the king's use and pleasure: to which the church may be compared; for its being distinguished from the world's wide waste, by the sovereign grace of God; and for the smallness of it in comparison of that; and for its pleasantness and fruitfulness, ha…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 4:12

private garden . . . secluded spring . . . hidden fountain (literally locked garden . . . locked spring . . . sealed fountain): This affirmation of her purity and virginity accentuates his exclusive and privileged position (see Prov 5:15 for similar imagery). The images of spring and fountain evoke thoughts of the most intimate parts of a woman’s body.

Rashi on Song of Solomon 4:12

A locked garden. This refers to the modesty of the daughters of Yisroel, who are not of loose morals.60Alternatively, ‘גן’ refers to the Pentateuch which has fifty-three sidros, the numerical value of ‘גן’. (Gra) A locked up spring. This can be explained as a term referring to a fountain, as in, “upper fountains גֻּלּוֹת,”61Yehoshua 15:19. and it can also be explained as a term referring to a gate, and it is an Aramaic term in the Talmud, “lock the gates גַלֵּי.”62Maseches Berachos 28a.

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

[This garden] is closed to the world but opened to the heavenly bridegroom. And the fountain where we are anointed after baptism was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
— Cyril of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:12

Now who is the "fountain sealed," or who is signified by the "wellspring of living water"? It is the Savior himself, of whom it is written: "For with you is the fountain of life."
— Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 14:5

He so departed from the abode of the womb that the virginal door did not open, and what is sung in the Canticle of Canticles was fulfilled: "My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up."
— Peter Chrysologus, SERMON 145

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Forest — Heb. ya’ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all the great primeval forests of Syria (Eccl. 2:6; Isa. 44:14; Jer. 5:6; Micah 5:8). The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of…
Spouse — (Cant. 4:8-12; Hos. 4:13, 14) may denote either husband or wife, but in the Scriptures it denotes only the latter.
Bridegroom · General references — General references
Fence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fountains And Springs · Illustrative: (Sealed up,) of the church — Illustrative: (Sealed up,) of the church
Gardens · Often enclosed — Often enclosed
Hedges · Placed around: Gardens — Placed around: Gardens
Seals · Illustrative of: Security — Illustrative of: Security
Titles And Names Of The Church · Spouse of Christ — Spouse of Christ

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).