Solomon and His Bride Extol Each Other

¹“Where has your beloved gone,[#6:1 CHORUS]

O most beautiful among women?

Where has your beloved turned,

That we may seek him with you?”

²¶“My beloved has gone down to his garden,[#6:2 BRIDE]

To the beds of spices,

To shepherd his flock in the gardens

And gather lilies.

³“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,

He who shepherds his flock among the lilies.”

⁴¶“You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,[#6:4 BRIDEGROOM]

As lovely as Jerusalem,

As majestic as an army with banners.

⁵“Turn your eyes away from me,

For they have overwhelmed me;

Your hair is like a flock of goats

That have leapt down from Gilead.

⁶“Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

Which have come up from their washing,

All of which bear twins,

And not one among them has lost her young.

⁷“Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate

Behind your veil.

⁸“There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

And maidens without number;

⁹She is the only one—my dove, my perfect one;

She is the only one of her mother;

She is the pure one of her who bore her.

The daughters saw her and called her blessed,

The queens and the concubines also , and they praised her, saying ,

¹⁰‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn,

As beautiful as the full moon,

As pure as the sun,

As majestic as an army with banners?’

¹¹¶“I went down to the garden of nut trees[#6:11 Possibly BRIDE, cf. 6:2; 7:13]

To see the blossoms of the valley,

To see whether the vine had flourished

Or the pomegranates had bloomed.

¹²“I did not know it , but my soul set me

Among the chariots of my noble people.”

¹³¶“Come back, come back, O Shulammite;[#6:13 CHORUS; #6:13 Ch 7:1 in Heb]

Come back, come back, that we may behold you!”

“W hy should you behold the Shulammite,

As at the dance of the two companies?