6:1 “Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
That we may seek him with you?”
6:2 “My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of balsam,
To pasture his flock in the gardens
And gather lilies.
6:3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
He who pastures his flock among the lilies.”
6:4 “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
As lovely as Jerusalem,
As awesome as an army with banners.
6:5 Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have confused me;
Your hair is like a flock of goats
That have descended from Gilead.
6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
That have come up from their watering place,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has lost her young.
6:7 Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate
Behind your veil.
6:8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
And ①young women without number;
▷ ①Or virgins
6:9 But my dove, my perfect one, is ①unique:
She is her mother’s ②only daughter;
She is the pure child of the one who gave birth to her.
The ③young women saw her and called her ④blessed,
The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,
▷ ①Lit one ②Lit one ③Lit daughters ④Or happy
6:10 ‘Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
As beautiful as the full moon,
As pure as the sun,
As awesome as an army with banners?’
6:11 I went down to the orchard of nut trees
To see the plants of the valley,
To see whether the vine had grown
Or the pomegranates had bloomed.
6:12 ①Before I was aware, my soul set me
Over the chariots of ②my noble people.”
▷ ①Lit I was not aware, my soul ②Or Ammi-nadib
6:13 “ ①Come back, come back, O Shulammite;
Come back, come back, so that we may look at you!”
“Why should you look at the Shulammite,
As at the dance of ②the two armies?
▷ ①Ch 7:1 in Heb ②Or Mahanaim