• Solomon and His Bride Extol Each Other

  • 1 “Where has your beloved gone, 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, 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, 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;
  • 9 She 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 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; Come back, come back, that we may behold you!” “Why should you behold the Shulammite, As at the dance of the two companies?