1  Where has your beloved gone,

^eO most beautiful among women?

Where has ^fyour beloved turned,

that we may ^gseek him with you?

2  My beloved has gone down to his ^hgarden

to the ⁱbeds of spices,

to graze¹ in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

3  ^jI am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;

he ^kgrazes among the lilies.

4  ^lYou are beautiful as ^mTirzah, ⁿmy love,

lovely as Jerusalem,

awesome as an army with banners.

5  Turn away your eyes from me,

for they overwhelm me—

^oYour hair is like a flock of goats

leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

6  ^pYour teeth are like a flock of ewes

that have come up from the washing;

all of them bear twins;

not one among them has lost its young.

7  ^qYour cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

8  There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and virgins without number.

9  ^rMy dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

the only one of her mother,

pure to her who bore her.

The young women saw her and called her blessed;

the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

10  “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,

beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,

awesome as an army with banners?”

11  I went down to the nut orchard

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to ^ssee whether the vines had budded,

whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

12  Before I was aware, my desire set me

among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.²

13  ³ Return, return, O Shulammite,

return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,

as upon a dance before two armies?⁴

1  How lonely sits the city

that was full of people!

How like a ^awidow has she become,

she who was great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

has become a slave.

2  She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks;

among all her ^blovers

she has none to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

they have become her enemies.

3  Judah has gone into exile because of affliction¹

and hard servitude;

she dwells now among the nations,

but finds ^cno resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.²

4  The ^droads to Zion mourn,

for none come to the festival;

all her gates are desolate;

her priests groan;

her virgins have been afflicted,³

and she herself suffers bitterly.

5  Her foes have become the ^ehead;

her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has afflicted her

for the multitude of her transgressions;

^fher children have gone away,

captives before the foe.

6  From the daughter of Zion

all her majesty has departed.

Her princes have become like deer

that find no pasture;

they fled without strength

before the pursuer.

7  Jerusalem remembers

in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the ^gprecious things

that were hers from days of old.

When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

and there was none to ^hhelp her,

her foes gloated over her;

they mocked at her downfall.

8  Jerusalem sinned grievously;

therefore she became filthy;

all who honored her despise her,

for they have ⁱseen her nakedness;

she herself groans

and turns her face away.

9  Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future;⁴

therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter.

“O Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

10  The enemy has stretched out his hands

over all her precious things;

for she has seen the nations

^jenter her sanctuary,

those whom you ^kforbade

to enter your congregation.

11  ^lAll her people groan

as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

to revive their strength.

“Look, O Lord, and see,

for I am despised.”

12  “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which was brought upon me,

which the Lord inflicted

on the day of his fierce anger.

13  “From on high he sent fire;

into my bones⁵ he made it descend;

he spread a net for my feet;

he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

14  “My transgressions were bound⁶ into a ^myoke;

by his hand they were fastened together;

they were set upon my neck;

he caused my strength to fail;

the Lord gave me into the hands

of those whom I cannot withstand.

15  “The Lord rejected

all my mighty men in my midst;

he summoned an assembly against me

to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a winepress

the virgin daughter of Judah.

16  “For these things ⁿI weep;

my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my spirit;

my children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.”

17  Zion ^ostretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her;

the Lord has commanded against Jacob

that his neighbors should be his foes;

Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

18  “The Lord is ^pin the right,

for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples,

and see my suffering;

^qmy young women and my young men

have gone into captivity.

19  “I called to my lovers,

but they deceived me;

my priests and elders

perished in the city,

while they sought food

to revive their strength.

20  “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me,

because I have been very rebellious.

^rIn the street the sword bereaves;

in the house it is like death.

21  “They heard⁷ my groaning,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you have done it.

You have brought⁸ the day you announced;

now let them be as I am.

22  “Let all their evildoing come before you,

and deal with them

as you have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions;

for my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.”