The Bride

¹ Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.

² My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.

The Bridegroom

³ I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

⁴ You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.

⁵ Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.

⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.

⁷ Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,

The Friends

⁹ but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the favorite of the mother who bore her. The maidens see her and call her blessed; the queens and concubines sing her praises.

The Bridegroom

¹⁰ Who is this who shines like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as the stars in procession?

¹¹ I went down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom.

The Friends

¹² Before I realized it, my desire had set me among the royal chariots of my people.¹

1. Or among the chariots of Amminadab

The Bridegroom

¹³ Come back, come back, O Shulammite! Come back, come back, that we may gaze upon you. Why do you look at the Shulammite, as on the dance of Mahanaim¹?

1. Or the dance of the two camps