Groom’s Praise of His Bride

¹ ⌞Oh my⌟!¹ You are beautiful, my beloved! ⌞Oh my⌟!² You are beautiful! Your eyes are doves from behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats that move down from the mountains of Gilead.

1. Literally “Behold!” Or “Look!”
2. Literally “Behold!” Or “Look!”

² Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that came up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is none bereaved among them.

³ Your lips are like a thread of crimson, and your mouth is lovely. Your temple is like pomegranate from behind your veil.

⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David, built in courses; a thousand ⌞ornaments⌟¹ are hung on it, all the shields of the warriors.

1. Literally “shields”

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

⁶ Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of the myrrh, to the hill of the frankincense.

The Mountains and Fragrance of Lebanon

⁷ You are completely beautiful, my beloved! ⌞You are flawless⌟!¹

1. Literally “There is no flaw in you!”

⁸ Come¹ with me from Lebanon, my bride! Come with me² from Lebanon! Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the dwelling places of the lions, from the mountains of leopard.

1. Or “You must come”
2. Or “With me”

⁹ You have stolen (my) heart, my sister bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance from your eyes, with one ornament from your necklaces.

¹⁰ How beautiful is your love, my sister bride! How better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

The Locked Garden of Delights Is Unlocked

¹¹ Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your lips; the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.

¹² A garden locked is my sister bride, a spring enclosed,¹ a fountain sealed.

1. Or “a source locked”

¹³ Your shoots¹ are an orchard of pomegranates with ⌞choice fruit⌟,² henna with nard;

1. Or “your channel”
2. Literally “fruit of choice things”

¹⁴ nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon spice with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all chief spices.

¹⁵ A garden fountain, a well of living water, flowing (streams) from Lebanon.

¹⁶ Awake, O north wind! Come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden! Let its fragrances¹ waft forth!² Let my beloved come to his garden, let him eat his choice fruit!

1. Or “perfumes”
2. Or “His perfumes can waft down”