Your cheeks are comely with ornaments: the reason for comparing the woman with the Egyptian mares is explained here. The ornaments or trinkets she wore reminded her lover of the decorations on the harnesses of the chariot horses from Egypt. The young woman’s cheeks are decorated by jewelry.

Are comely: for the meaning of comely see comments on verse 5. Revised Standard Version renders the adjective as a statement, while the Septuagint makes it an exclamation, “How beautiful…!” It is difficult to define what the young woman is decorated with. The original text speaks of small round objects, probably beads suspended from a headband and hanging down the side of the face. There is then some likeness with the decorated bridle worn by the horse. Jerusalem Bible considers the phrase to mean “between their pendants,” and New American Bible suggests “in pendants.” Contemporary English Version thinks the beads are earrings. Good News Translation and New English Bible seem to think that what hangs down her face is her black hair. It could mistakenly give the impression she has a beard! For this reason Good News Translation should not be used as a model text here.

Your neck with strings of jewels: the adjective comely, “beautiful,” applies also to the young woman’s neck. Hebrew does not require that the adjective be repeated. It is an ellipsis; that is, the meaning is to be understood from the previous clause. However, some languages may need to add a parallel adjective or repeat “beautiful” from the first clause: “Your neck, with its strings of jewels, is so beautiful.”

Strings of jewels is parallel to “ornaments” in the previous clause. The term itself occurs only here in the entire Old Testament, so finding its meaning is not easy. It is logical, however, to think of what women wear around their necks, and from the related languages we discover that there is a similar root that refers to beads on a string.

Translation suggestions are:

• Beautiful trinkets adorn your cheeks [or, face]; lovely beads are around your neck.

• Your face is beautiful with jewelry, your neck with strings of beads.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .