Add parallel Print Page Options

Young Women of Jerusalem (to her): Where has your love gone,
        most beautiful of women?
    Do you know which direction he went
        so we can help you find him?

They pass through many obstacles as they celebrate their union in different venues. Love is found in a garden or a parental home. Ecstasy comes in a dream or reality.

Her: Women of Jerusalem, I know where my love is.
        My love has gone into his garden
    Among the beds of aromatic spices,
        like a gazelle grazing among his gardens
        and a gardener gathering the lilies.
    I belong to my love, and my love to me.
        He feeds his flock among the lilies.

Him (to her): You are beautiful, my dear, as beautiful as Tirzah,
        as lovely as Jerusalem,
        as regal as an army beneath their banners.
    Turn your eyes from me
        because they overpower me as always.
    Your hair moves as gracefully as a flock of goats
        leaping down the slopes of Mount Gilead.
    Your teeth are pearl white like a flock of sheep shorn,
        fresh up from a wash.
    Each is perfect and paired with another;
        not one of them is lost.
    Your cheeks are rosy and round beneath your veil,
        like the halves of a pomegranate.
    There may be 60 queens and 80 concubines—
        there may be more virgins than can be counted—
    But my dove, my perfect love is the only one for me,
        the only daughter of her mother,
        the pure and favored child to the one who bore her.
    The young women saw her and called her blessed;
        the queens and concubines praised her.

10 Young Women of Jerusalem: Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
        as radiant as the full moon, as bright as sunlight,
        as majestic as an army beneath their banners?

11 Her: I went down to walk among a stand of walnut trees,
        to take in the new growth of the valley,
    To see if the vines had budded
        or the pomegranates were blooming.
12     Before I knew it, my passions set me before some chariots,
        those belonging to my noble people.[a]

13 Young Women of Jerusalem: Come back, come back, O Shulammite!
        Come back, come back to us, so that we can look upon you.

Him: Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
        as you would stare at the dance of joyous victory at Mahanaim?

Footnotes

  1. 6:12 Hebrew, Ammi-nadiv; meaning is uncertain.

Friends

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

She

My beloved has gone(C) down to his garden,(D)
    to the beds of spices,(E)
to browse in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;(F)
    he browses among the lilies.(G)

He

You are as beautiful as Tirzah,(H) my darling,
    as lovely as Jerusalem,(I)
    as majestic as troops with banners.(J)
Turn your eyes from me;
    they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    descending from Gilead.(K)
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
    coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin,
    not one of them is missing.(L)
Your temples behind your veil(M)
    are like the halves of a pomegranate.(N)
Sixty queens(O) there may be,
    and eighty concubines,(P)
    and virgins beyond number;
but my dove,(Q) my perfect one,(R) is unique,
    the only daughter of her mother,
    the favorite of the one who bore her.(S)
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 trees
    to look at the new growth in the valley,
to see if the vines had budded
    or the pomegranates were in bloom.(T)
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 Shulammite
    as on the dance(U) of Mahanaim?[b]

Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 6:12 Or among the chariots of Amminadab; or among the chariots of the people of the prince
  2. Song of Songs 6:13 In Hebrew texts this verse (6:13) is numbered 7:1.