Song of Songs 6

¹D Where has your lover gone,

most beautiful among women?

Where has your lover withdrawn

that we may seek him with you?

²W My lover has come down to his garden,[#Sg 4:12; 5:1.; #The woman implies here that she had never really lost her lover, for he has come down to his garden (cf. 2:16; 4:5). : the imagery here evokes both a shepherd pasturing his flocks and erotic play between the lovers (2:16; 4:5, 12, 16).]

to the beds of spices,

To feed in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³I belong to my lover, and my lover belongs to me;[#Sg 2:16; 7:11.]

he feeds among the lilies.

⁴M Beautiful as Tirzah are you, my friend;[#The man again celebrates the woman’s beauty. : probably meaning “pleasant”; it was the early capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (1 Kgs 16). : the meaning is uncertain. Military images may be implied here, i.e., the “heavenly hosts” who fight along with God on Israel’s behalf (cf. Jgs 5:20), or perhaps a reference to the awesome goddesses of the region who combined aspects of both fertility and war.]

fair as Jerusalem,

fearsome as celestial visions!

⁵Turn your eyes away from me,[#Sg 4:9.]

for they stir me up.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes[#Sg 4:1–3.]

that come up from the washing,

All of them big with twins,

none of them barren.

⁷Like pomegranate halves,

your cheeks behind your veil.

⁸Sixty are the queens, eighty the concubines,

and young women without number—

⁹One alone is my dove, my perfect one,[#: the incomparability of the woman is a favorite motif in love poetry.]

her mother’s special one,

favorite of the one who bore her.

Daughters see her and call her happy,

queens and concubines, and they praise her:

¹⁰“Who is this that comes forth like the dawn,[#Sg 3:6; 8:5.; #: the speakers may be the women of vv. 8–9. : lit., “the white” and “the hot,” respectively (cf. Is 24:23; 30:26). : see note on 6:4–9.]

beautiful as the white moon, pure as the blazing sun,

fearsome as celestial visions?”

¹¹W To the walnut grove I went down,[#Sg 4:12–5:1; 7:13.; #: also a site of activity in a wedding hymn of the Syrian moon goddess Nikkal (cf. the woman compared to the moon in v. 10).]

to see the young growth of the valley;

To see if the vines were in bloom,

if the pomegranates had blossomed.

¹²Before I knew it, my desire had made me

the blessed one of the prince’s people.