< Song of Solomon 6 >
1 To where has your beloved gone, O beautiful among women? To where has your beloved turned, And we seek him with you?
Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.
2 My beloved went down to his garden, To the beds of the spice, To delight himself in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.
3 I [am] my beloved’s, and my beloved [is] mine, Who is delighting himself among the lilies.
I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
4 You [are] beautiful, my friend, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts.
You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.
5 Turn around your eyes from before me, Because they have made me proud. Your hair [is] as a row of the goats, That have shone from Gilead,
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 as a row of the lambs, That have come up from the washing, Because all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them.
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 As the work of the pomegranate [is] your temple behind your veil.
Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.
8 Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number.
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,
9 One is my dove, my perfect one, She [is] one of her mother, She [is] the choice one of her that bore her, Daughters saw, and pronounce her blessed, Queens and concubines, and they praise her.
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.
10 “Who [is] this that is looking forth as morning, Beautiful as the moon—clear as the sun, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts?”
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 To a garden of nuts I went down, To look on the buds of the valley, To see to where the vine had flourished, The pomegranates had blossomed—
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.
12 I did not know my soul, It made me—chariots of my people Nadib.
Before I realized it, my desire had set me among the royal chariots of my people.
13 Return, return, O Shulammith! Return, return, and we look on you. What do you see in Shulammith?
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 Mahanaim?