1 Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Where has your beloved turned

that we may seek him with you?

2 My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the garden bed of the spice,

to pasture his flock and to gather lilies in the garden.

3 I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me;*

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

4 You are beautiful, my beloved, as Tirzah,

lovely as Jerusalem,

overwhelming as an army with banners.*

5 Turn away your eyes from before me,

for they overwhelm me.

Your hair is like a flock of the goats

that moves down from Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of the ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of them bearing twins,

and there is none bereaved among them.

7 Your cheeks behind* your veil

are like halves of a pomegranate.

8 Sixty queens there are, eighty concubines,

and maidens beyond number.

9 My dove, she is the one;**

my perfect, she is the only one;**

she is the favorite of** her mother who bore her.

Maidens see her and consider her fortunate;*

queens and concubines praise her:

10 "Who is this that looks down like the dawn,

beautiful as the moon,

bright as the sun,**

overwhelming as an army with banners?"*

11 I went down to the orchard of the walnut trees

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to see whether the vines have sprouted,

whether the pomegranates have blossomed.

12 I did not know my heart* set me

in a chariot of my princely people.*

13 * Turn, turn,* O Shulammite!*

Turn, turn* so that we may look upon you!

Why do you look upon the Shulammite

as at a dance of the two armies?