Song of Solomon 6–8

The Friends Speak to the Woman

6Where has your lover gone,

most beautiful of women?

Which way did your lover turn?

We will look for him with you.

The Woman Answers the Friends

²My lover has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to feed in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³I belong to my lover,

and my lover belongs to me.

He feeds among the lilies.

The Man Speaks to the Woman

⁴My darling, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah,

as lovely as the city of Jerusalem,

like an army flying flags.

⁵Turn your eyes from me,

because they excite me too much.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down Mount Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are white like sheep

just coming from their bath;

each one has a twin,

and none of them is missing.

⁷Your cheeks behind your veil

are like slices of a pomegranate.

⁸There may be sixty queens and eighty slave women

and so many girls you cannot count them,

⁹but there is only one like my dove, my perfect one.

She is her mother’s only daughter,

the brightest of the one who gave her birth.

The young women saw her and called her happy;

the queens and the slave women also praised her.

The Young Women Praise the Woman

¹⁰Who is that young woman

that shines out like the dawn?

She is as pretty as the moon,

as bright as the sun,

as wonderful as an army flying flags.

The Man Speaks

¹¹I went down into the orchard of nut trees

to see the blossoms of the valley,

to look for buds on the vines,

to see if the pomegranate trees had bloomed.

¹²Before I realized it, my desire for you made me feel

like a prince in a chariot.

The Friends Call to the Woman

¹³Come back, come back, woman of Shulam.

Come back, come back,

so we may look at you!

The Woman Answers the Friends

Why do you want to look at the woman of Shulam

as you would at the dance of two armies?

The Man Speaks to the Woman

7Your feet are beautiful in sandals,

you daughter of a prince.

Your round thighs are like jewels

shaped by an artist.

²Your navel is like a round drinking cup

always filled with wine.

Your stomach is like a pile of wheat

surrounded with lilies.

³Your breasts are like two fawns,

like twins of a gazelle.

⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon

near the gate of Bath Rabbim.

Your nose is like the mountain of Lebanon

that looks down on Damascus.

⁵Your head is like Mount Carmel,

and your hair is like purple cloth;

the king is captured in its folds.

⁶You are beautiful and pleasant;

my love, you are full of delights.

⁷You are tall like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its bunches of fruit.

⁸I said, “I will climb up the palm tree

and take hold of its fruit.”

Let your breasts be like bunches of grapes,

the smell of your breath like apples,

⁹and your mouth like the best wine.

The Woman Speaks to the Man

Let this wine go down sweetly for my lover;

may it flow gently past the lips and teeth.

¹⁰I belong to my lover,

and he desires only me.

¹¹Come, my lover,

let’s go out into the country

and spend the night in the fields.

¹²Let’s go early to the vineyards

and see if the buds are on the vines.

Let’s see if the blossoms have already opened

and if the pomegranates have bloomed.

There I will give you my love.

¹³The mandrake flowers give their sweet smell,

and all the best fruits are at our gates.

I have saved them for you, my lover,

the old delights and the new.

8I wish you were like my brother

who fed at my mother’s breasts.

If I found you outside,

I would kiss you,

and no one would look down on me.

²I would lead you and bring you

to my mother’s house;

she is the one who taught me.

I would give you a drink of spiced wine

from my pomegranates.

The Woman Speaks to the Friends

³My lover’s left hand is under my head,

and his right arm holds me tight.

⁴Women of Jerusalem,

promise not to awaken

or excite my feelings of love

until it is ready.

The Friends Speak

⁵Who is this coming out of the desert,

leaning on her lover?

The Man Speaks to the Woman

I woke you under the apple tree

where you were born;

there your mother gave birth to you.

⁶Put me like a seal on your heart,

like a seal on your arm.

Love is as strong as death;

jealousy is as strong as the grave.

Love bursts into flames

and burns like a hot fire.

⁷Even much water cannot put out the flame of love;

floods cannot drown love.

If a man offered everything in his house for love,

people would totally reject it.

The Woman’s Brothers Speak

⁸We have a little sister,

and her breasts are not yet grown.

What should we do for our sister

on the day she becomes engaged?

⁹If she is a wall,

we will put silver towers on her.

If she is a door,

we will protect her with cedar boards.

The Woman Speaks

¹⁰I am a wall,

and my breasts are like towers.

So I was to him,

as one who brings happiness.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon.

He rented the vineyards for others to tend,

and everyone who rented had to pay

twenty-five pounds of silver for the fruit.

¹²But my own vineyard is mine to give.

Solomon, the twenty-five pounds of silver are for you,

and five pounds are for those who tend the fruit.

The Man Speaks to the Woman

¹³You who live in the gardens,

my friends are listening for your voice;

let me hear it.

The Woman Speaks to the Man

¹⁴Hurry, my lover,

be like a gazelle

or a young deer

on the mountains where spices grow.