Mutual Delight in Each Other

(The Chorus)

1“Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Where is your beloved hiding himself,

That we may seek him with you?”

(The Shulammite Bride)

2“My beloved has gone down to his garden,

To the beds of balsam,

To feed his flock in the gardens

And gather lilies.

3“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,

He who feeds his flock among the lilies.”

(The Bridegroom)

4“You are as beautiful as [a]Tirzah, my darling,

As lovely as Jerusalem,

As majestic as an army with banners!

5“Turn your [flashing] eyes away from me,

For they have confused and overcome me;

Your hair is like [the shimmering black fleece of] a flock of [Arabian] goats

That have descended from Mount Gilead.

6“Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

Which have come up from their washing,

All of which bear twins,

And not one among them has lost her young.

7“Your temples are like a slice of the pomegranate

Behind your veil.

8“There are sixty queens and eighty [b]concubines,

And maidens without number;

9But my dove, my perfect one, stands alone [above them all];

She is her mother’s only daughter;

She is the pure child of the one who bore her.

The maidens saw her and called her blessed and happy,

The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

10‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn,

Fair and beautiful as the full moon,

Clear and pure as the sun,

As majestic as an army with banners?’

11“I went down to the orchard of nut trees

To see the flowers of the valley,

To see whether the grapevine had budded

And the pomegranates were in flower.

12“Before I was aware [of what was happening], my desire had brought me

Into the area of the princes of my people [the king’s retinue].”

(The Chorus)

13“Return, return, O Shulammite;

Return, return, that we may gaze at you.”

(The Bridegroom)