The Song of Songs 4:12

The Wedding Night: The Delightful Garden

The Lover to His Beloved:

4:12 You are a locked garden, ¹  my sister, my bride;

you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain.

Ecclesiastes 2:6

2:6 I constructed pools of water for myself,

to irrigate my grove ²  of flourishing trees.

[4:12]  ¹ sn The twin themes of the enclosed garden and sealed spring are highlighted by the wordplay (paronomasia) between the Hebrew expressions גַּן נָעוּל (gan na’ul, “a garden locked up”) and גַּל נָעוּל (gal na’ul, “an enclosed spring”).

[2:6]  ² tn Heb “to water from them a grove” (or “forest).