¹ How beautiful you are, my darling— how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.

² Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.

³ Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David, built with rows of stones; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

⁵ Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

⁶ Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my darling; in you there is no flaw.

⁸ Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon! Descend¹ from the peak of Amana, from the summits of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.

1. Or Look down

⁹ You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck.

¹⁰ How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.

¹¹ Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.

¹² My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

¹³ Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,

¹⁴ with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

The Bride

¹⁵ You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water¹ flowing down from Lebanon.

1. Or flowing water or living water

¹⁶ Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.