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Chapter 7

The Beauty of the Beloved

D? Turn, turn, O Shulammite![a]
    turn, turn that we may gaze upon you!
W How can you gaze upon the Shulammite
    as at the dance of the two camps?
M How beautiful are your feet in sandals,[b]
    O noble daughter!
Your curving thighs like jewels,
    the product of skilled hands.
Your valley,[c] a round bowl
    that should never lack mixed wine.
Your belly, a mound of wheat,
    encircled with lilies.
(A)Your breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
(B)Your neck like a tower of ivory;
    your eyes, pools in Heshbon
    by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose like the tower of Lebanon
    that looks toward Damascus.[d]
Your head rises upon you like Carmel;[e]
    your hair is like purple;
    a king is caught in its locks.

Love’s Desires

How beautiful you are, how fair,
    my love, daughter of delights!

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Footnotes

  1. 7:1 Shulammite: the woman is so designated because she is considered to be from Shulam (or Shunem) in the plain of Esdraelon (cf. 1 Kgs 1:3), or because the name may mean “the peaceful one,” and thus recall the name of Solomon. Turn: she is asked to face the speaker(s). How…: she refuses to be regarded as a spectacle (“the dance of the two camps” is unknown). Some interpret the episode as an invitation to her to dance.
  2. 7:2–6 Another description of the woman’s charms. Sandals: the woman’s sandaled foot was apparently considered quite seductive (Jdt 16:9). Noble: a possible connection to the enigmatic “prince” of 6:12. Curving…jewels: the meaning of these Hebrew words is not certain. Wine and wheat suggest fertility.
  3. 7:3 Valley: lit., navel; a discreet allusion to her sex.
  4. 7:5 The comparison emphasizes the stateliness of her neck, and the clarity of her eyes. Bath-rabbim: a proper name which occurs only here; there was a city of Rabbah northeast of Heshbon in Transjordan. Cf. Jer 49:3.
  5. 7:6 Carmel: a prominent set of cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean.