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Friends of the Woman

Where has your beloved gone,
    O fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned aside,
    that we may seek him with you?

The Woman

My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
to feed his flock in the gardens,
    and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he feeds his flock among the lilies.

The Man

You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
    comely as Jerusalem,
    awesome as an army with banners!
Turn your eyes away from me,
    for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    streaming down from Gilead.
your 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;
your cheeks are like halves
    of a pomegranate behind your veil.
There are sixty queens
    and eighty concubines,
    and virgins without number.
My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
    the only one of her mother,
    choice to her who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed;
    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

10 Who is this who looks forth like the dawn,
    fair as the moon, radiant 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 see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12 Before I was aware, my soul set me in a chariot beside my prince.

Friends of the Woman

13 Return, return, O Shulammite![a]
    Return, return, that we may look upon you.

The Man

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?[b]

Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 6:13 7:1 in the Heb. text.
  2. Song of Songs 6:13 Or dance of Mahanaim.