Song of Solomon 4:2

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
teeth	שִׁנַּ֙יִךְ֙ shi.Na.yikh	H8127	a tooth (as sharp) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
flock	כְּעֵ֣דֶר ke.'E.der	H5739	an arrangement · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
shorn	הַקְּצוּב֔וֹת ha.ke.tzu.Vot	H7094	to clip · definite article + verb, qal passive participle, feminine plural absolute
up	שֶׁעָל֖וּ she.'a.Lu	H5927	to ascend · relative particle + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
washing	הָרַחְצָ֑ה ha.rach.Tzah	H7367	a bathing place · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
twins	מַתְאִימ֔וֹת mat.'i.Mot	H8382	to be (causatively · verb, hiphil active participle, feminine plural absolute
barren	וְשַׁכֻּלָ֖ה ve.sha.ku.Lah	H7909	bereaved · conjunction + 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 6:6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.
Exodus 23:26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
Deuteronomy 7:13-14 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and…
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD…
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Colossians 1:4-6 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the…
2 Peter 1:5-8 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

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 4:2

Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep,.... That is, like the teeth of a flock of sheep; as her eyes were like the eyes of doves, and her hair like the hair of goats: and Galen long ago observed, that human teeth are much like the teeth of sheep, in figure, order, and structure, as well as are small and white; neatly set, innocent and harmless, not ravenous and voracious, cropping herbs and grass only (w); the whiteness of the teeth is chiefly intended, in which the beauty of them lies, for which they are sometimes compared (x) to Parian marble for whiteness. The Targum interprets these teeth of the priests and Levites; but it is much better to understand them of the ministers of the Gospel: te…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Song of Solomon 4:2

Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin: Her teeth are matched on both sides, with none missing. In an age when dental care was not what it is today, a woman with all her teeth was quite a prize!

Rashi on Song of Solomon 4:2

Your teeth are like a counted flock, etc. This praise, too, is expressed in terms of a woman’s beauty. Your teeth. Are fine and white and arranged in their proper order like wool and like the order of a flock of ewes, selected from the rest of the flock by count and number,14Corresponding to “שעלו מן הרחצה,” i.e., “who have come up from the washing.” and are assigned to a clever and capable shepherd to be careful with their wool, because they make them into fine woolen garments. They watch them from the time of birth, that the wool should not become soiled, and they wash them daily.15Tehillim 38:4. All of which are perfect. An expression of perfection, [as in,] “There is no perfection מְתם…

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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

"Your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn." A sincere confession is a spiritual shearing! And further: "all of them big with twins," signifying the twofold grace, either that perfected by water and the Spirit, or that announced in the Old and in the New Testament.
— Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 3:16

He says to the church, his spouse, "Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them." By this twin offspring the twofold object of love is meant, namely, God and the neighbor: "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
— Augustine of Hippo, LETTER 149

[There is a] pleasing comparison to those that are shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without risk and securely find their food in rugged places, and then when shorn are freed from what is superfluous. The church is likened to a flock of these, having in itself the many virtues of those souls which through the laver lay aside the superfluity of sins and offer to Christ the mystic faith and the grace of good living, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus.
— Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries 7:38

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…
Sheep · Described as: Remarkably prolific — Described as: Remarkably prolific

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).