Song of Solomon 5:17–8:14

¹⁷Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside, and we will seek him with thee?

Chapter 6

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

²I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies.

³Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army set in array.

⁴Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Galaad.

⁵Thy teeth as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.

⁶Thy cheeks are as the bark of a pomegranate, beside what is hidden within thee.

⁷There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.

⁸One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines, and they praised her.

⁹Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?

¹⁰I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

¹¹I knew not: my soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab.

¹²Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee.

Chapter 7

What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps? How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince’s daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, that are made by the hand of a skilful workman.

²Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.

³Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

⁴Thy neck as a tower of ivory. Thy eyes like the fishpools in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, that looketh toward Damascus.

⁵Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels.

⁶How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights!

⁷Thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

⁸I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: and the odour of thy mouth like apples.

⁹Thy throat like the best wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate.

¹⁰I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me.

¹¹Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.

¹²Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish: there will I give thee my breasts.

¹³The mandrakes give a smell. In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.

Chapter 8

Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

²I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.

³His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

⁴I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.

⁵Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.

⁶Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

⁷Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

⁸Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

⁹If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

¹⁰I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.

¹¹The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.

¹²My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.

¹³Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.

¹⁴Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.