1:12–14 The woman replied to the man

In 1:12–14 the woman replied to what the man said in 1:9–11 about her beauty. Here in 1:12–14 she also admired him and indicated that she desired him. She mentioned the sweet fragrance that was present when they were together. In 1:12 it was the fragrance of the woman’s perfume that affected the man.

In 1:13–14 the woman used two metaphors to compare the man with fragrances. The metaphors imply that the man delighted her like a wonderful fragrance. In these lines she probably imagined or dreamed about being with her beloved. She was probably not actually with him.

1:12a–b

While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance: The clause While the king was at his table (1:12a) tells where the king was while the scent of the woman’s perfume was in the air. In OT times, people reclined, or lay, on couches when they ate, so the Revised English Bible has “While the king reclines on his couch.” Use natural verb forms in your language to describe this. Some ways to do this in English are:

While the king reclines on his couch, my spikenard gives forth its scent. (Revised English Bible)
-or-
My king is sitting at his table, and the scent of my perfume is in the air.

1:12a

the king: In this context the woman used the word king as a poetic term of affection to refer to her beloved. He was not an actual king. It is good to translate the term here as you did in 1:4b. For example:

my chief
-or-
my king

at his table: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as table describes something round. The phrase at his table is more literally “in his circle/round.” Scholars differ about what the word “circle/round” refers to here:

(1) It refers to a “couch.” For example:

his couch (Revised English Bible)

(2) It refers to a “table.” For example:

his table (New International Version)

(3) It refers to “an enclosure,” maybe to his room or to a different enclosed place. For example:

his own room (New Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), as most versions and scholars do. It is possible that the word is another way to refer to the same couch that is mentioned in 1:16c.

1:12b

my perfume spread its fragrance: The Hebrew word translated as perfume in the Berean Standard Bible, is more literally, “nard.” Nard refers to an expensive perfume imported from India. It had a beautiful fragrance, and it seemed to encourage sexual desire in that culture. The clause my perfume spread its fragrance indicates that the smell of the woman’s perfume spread through the air. Everyone around could smell it. Other ways to translate this are:

my perfume fills the air with its fragrance. (God’s Word)
-or-
the smell/odor of my perfume spread throughout the room.

Describe the spreading fragrance of perfume in a way that is natural in your language. In some languages, it may be possible to translate the idea with an idiom that would fit the poetic style.

my perfume: The phrase my perfume refers here to a type of perfumed oil that the woman spread on her body. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

the perfume ⌊that I rubbed on⌋ my ⌊body⌋
-or-
my expensive nard perfume

perfume: The word perfume refers here to perfumed oil that was made from the nard plant. This plant grows in the Himalaya mountains far away, so the nard oil was rare and expensive in Israel. For more information about the nard plant and a picture of it, see the note on perfume in 4:13c.

General Comment on 1:12

In some languages, a time clause does not occur first in the sentence. So the order of the two clauses in this verse may need to be reversed. For example:

My perfume spread its fragrance while my king was at his table.

© 2017 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.