Friends

6 Where has your beloved gone,most beautiful of women?Which way did your beloved turn,that we may look for him with you?

She

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,to the beds of spices,to browse in the gardensand to gather lilies.³ I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;he browses among the lilies.

He

⁴ You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,as lovely as Jerusalem,as majestic as troops with banners.⁵ Turn your eyes from me;they overwhelm me.Your hair is like a flock of goatsdescending from Gilead.⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheepcoming up from the washing.Each has its twin,not one of them is missing.⁷ Your temples behind your veilare like the halves of a pomegranate.⁸ Sixty queens there may be,and eighty concubines,and virgins beyond number;⁹ but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,the only daughter of her mother,the favorite of the one who bore her.The young women saw her and called her blessed;the queens and concubines praised her.

Friends

¹⁰ Who is this that appears like the dawn,fair as the moon, bright as the sun,majestic as the stars in procession?

He

¹¹ I went down to the grove of nut treesto look at the new growth in the valley,to see if the vines had buddedor the pomegranates were in bloom.¹² Before I realized it,my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.^[a]

Friends

¹³ Come back, come back, O Shulammite;come back, come back, that we may gaze on you!

He

Why would you gaze on the Shulammiteas on the dance of Mahanaim?^[b]