What Does Song of Solomon 4:2 Mean?
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep, all shorn, that climb up from the washing, each one bearing twins, and none among them bereft of young.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Here beauty is pictured as a whole set: every tooth is matched, and none is missing.
THE MEANING
The beloved is seen in close, physical detail: your teeth are clean and evenly set, like a flock fresh from washing. Each is matched, and none is bereaved; the praise rests in a beauty that is whole and without loss.
THE ROOT
מַתְאִימוֹת
mat'imot
GROWS FROM
תאם
t-ʾ-m
To be paired or matched.
“each one bearing twins” in this verse is mat'imot. The image is more than a row of similar teeth: each belongs with its counterpart. Their beauty appears in the completeness of the set.
ALSO GROWS
te'om: A twin
תְּאוֹם
The singular form makes the idea of pairing explicit.
te'omim: Twins
תְּאוֹמִים
This form names literal twins, as in Genesis 25:24, echoing the pairedness in the verse.
שַׁכּוּלָה
shakkulah
GROWS FROM
שכל
sh-k-l
To bereave or lose young.
“none among them bereft of young” in this verse is shakkulah. The closing image carries the weight of loss: none among the flock is bereaved. That deepens the praise from appearance into a picture of wholeness without deprivation.
ALSO GROWS
shakhal: To be bereaved or deprived of children
שָׁכַל
This verb gives the root its force of loss.
meshakkelet: Bereaving, casting young
מְשַׁכֶּלֶת
The same root describes the absence of loss among the flock.
שִׁנַּיִךְ
shinnayikh
GROWS FROM
שנן
sh-n-n
To sharpen or whet.
The Hebrew word for teeth belongs to a consonantal family that also means sharpening. The image holds a sense of clean, formed edges alongside the matched completeness of the row.
ALSO GROWS
shen: A tooth
שֵׁן
This is the singular word behind the teeth being praised.
shinnantam: You shall sharpen them; rendered “teach diligently”
שִׁנַּנְתָּם
Deuteronomy 6:7 uses this form for words being sharpened or impressed through repetition.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is shown by parts held together in relation, with none broken or lost.
He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.And this is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all he has given me I should let none perish, but should raise it up again at the last day.If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.THE THREAD
And when the days of her birthing were filled, look, there were twins in her womb.The Hebrew paired word מַתְאִימוֹת (mat’imot, “matched, twinned”) belongs to the same word-family as תְּאוֹם (te’om, “twin”), used for Rebekah’s twins. Genesis makes the pairing literal, while Song applies that same pairedness to teeth: their beauty lies in a complete set, each matched to another.
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