Solomon and His Bride Extol Each Other
“aWhere has your beloved gone,
O bmost beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
That we may seek him with you?”
2 “My beloved has gone down to his agarden,
To the bbeds of spices,
To cshepherd his flock in the gardens
And gather dlilies.
3 aI am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
He who bshepherds his flock among the lilies.”
4 “aYou are as beautiful as bTirzah, my darling,
As clovely as dJerusalem,
As emajestic as an army with banners.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have overwhelmed me;
aYour hair is like a flock of goats
That have leapt down from Gilead.
6 aYour 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 aYour temples are like a slice of a pomegranate
Behind your veil.
8 There are sixty aqueens and eighty concubines,
And bmaidens without number;
9 She is the only one—amy dove, my perfect one;
She is the only one of her mother;
She is the pure one of her who bore her.
The bdaughters saw her and called her blessed,
The cqueens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,
10 ‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn,
As beautiful as the full amoon,
As pure bas the sun,
As cmajestic 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 athe vine had flourished
Or the bpomegranates 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 adance of bthe two companies?