4:10a
How delightful is your love: The Hebrew clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as How delightful is your love is an exclamation. The man told his bride that her love gave him great pleasure. Some other ways to translate the exclamation are:
Your love delights me (Good News Translation)
-or-
How beautiful are your expressions of love (God’s Word)
-or-
Your love causes me to feel happy
Translate it in a way that fits this context in your language.
delightful is your love: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as love is plural. It probably refers to physical ways that the woman showed her love to him. These ways include actions like kissing and touching. The word delightful is often translated as “sweet” or “beautiful.” It indicates that the ways she showed her love were wonderful and delightful to the man. They gave him much pleasure.
your love: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as your love is also used in 1:2. See the note on 1:2b for more information.
my sister, my bride: This phrase was also used in 4:9. For information on how to translate the phrase my sister, see the notes on 4:9a. For information on how to translate my bride, see the notes on 4:8a–b.
In some languages it may be necessary to put the phrase my sister, my bride at the beginning of 4:10. For example:
My sister, my bride, how wonderful is your love!
For a discussion of my sister, see the note on 4:9a. For a discussion of my bride, see the note on 4:8a–b.
4:10b
Your love is much better than wine: What the man said here is similar to what the woman said to him in 1:2b.You should translate the two verses in a similar way. The Hebrew identifies 4:10b–c as an exclamation. Other ways to translate the exclamation are:
Your love is sweeter than wine (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
how much better is your love than wine (Revised Standard Version)
Refer to how you translated the similar expression in 1:2b and translate in a similar way.
Your love: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Your love is also used in 1:2. See the note on 1:2b for more information.
wine: The word wine refers here to a fermented drink made from grapes. It was a common beverage among the Hebrew people and was often used in celebrations. You should translate it as you did in 1:2b.
4:10c
and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices: Here the phrase the fragrance of your perfume refers to the perfumed oil that the woman rubbed on her body to make her smell sweet. The man also wore perfumed oils. In 1:3a the woman told the man that his oils were fragrant. Here the man praised her oils even more. He said that they smelled better than any spice.
Some other ways to translate this comparison are:
Your perfume smells better than any spice. (New Century Version)
-or-
Your perfumed oil is more fragrant than the best of spices.
perfume: In the ancient Near East olive oil was used as a base for making perfume and cologne. Expensive fragrances were added to the oils. Some of these fragrances were made from costly foreign spices, and both men and women used them. Use appropriate words in your language to describe fragrances that men and women put on their bodies to make them smell good.
General Comment on 4:10b–c
The comparisons in 4:10b and 4:10c are parallel. Both comparisons say that something is better than something else. It is common in Hebrew poetry that part of the comparison is implied in the second parallel line, so it is not stated explicitly. The implied words in the example below are in brackets:
Your love is much better than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume ⌊is much better⌋ than all spices!
Translate the comparison is a natural way in your language.
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