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 beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O noble daughter!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.

2  Your navel is a rounded bowl

that never lacks mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

3  ^tYour two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

4  ^uYour neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

which looks toward Damascus.

5  Your head crowns you like Carmel,

and your flowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.

6  How beautiful and pleasant you are,

O loved one, with all your delights!⁵

7  Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

8  I say I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its fruit.

Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

9  and your ^vmouth⁶ like the best wine.

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding over lips and teeth.⁷

10  ^wI am my beloved’s,

and his desire is for me.

11  Come, my beloved,

let us go out into the fields

and lodge in the villages;⁸

12  let us go out early to the vineyards

and ^xsee whether the vines have budded,

whether the grape ^yblossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

13  The ^zmandrakes give forth fragrance,

and beside our doors are all ^achoice fruits,

new as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

1  Oh that you were like a brother to me

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outside, I would kiss you,

and none would despise me.

2  I would lead you and ^bbring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

3  ^cHis left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

4  ^dI adjure you, O ^edaughters of Jerusalem,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

5  ^fWho is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on ^gher beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.

There your mother was in labor with you;

there she who bore you was in labor.

6  Set me ^has a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy⁹ is fierce as the grave.¹⁰

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the Lord.

7  Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he¹¹ would be utterly despised.

8  We have a little sister,

and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister

on the day when she is spoken for?

9  If she is a wall,

we will build on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

10  I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds¹² peace.

11  Solomon ⁱhad a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he let out the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12  ^jMy vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

13  O you who dwell in the gardens,

with ^kcompanions listening for your voice;

^llet me hear it.

14  Make haste, my beloved,

and be ^mlike a gazelle

or a young stag

on the ⁿmountains of spices.

^m“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”