The Daughters of Jerusalem

1 Where has your beloved gone,

*O fairest among women?

Where has your beloved turned aside,

That we may seek him with you?

The Shulamite

2 My beloved has gone to his *garden,

To the beds of spices,

To feed hisflock in the gardens,

And to gather lilies.

3 *I am my beloved’s,

And my beloved is mine.

He feeds hisflock among the lilies.

The Beloved

4 O my love, you areas beautiful as Tirzah,

Lovely as Jerusalem,

Awesome as anarmy with banners!

5 Turn your eyes away from me,

For they have overcome me.

Your hair is*like a flock of goats

Going down from Gilead.

6 *Your teeth are like a flock of sheep

Which have come up from the washing;

Every one bears twins,

And none is barren among them.

7 *Like a piece of pomegranate

Are your temples behind your veil.

8 There are sixty queens

And eighty concubines,

And *virgins without number.

9 My dove, my *perfect one,

Is the only one,

The only one of her mother,

The favorite of the one who bore her.

The daughters saw her

And called her blessed,

The queens and the concubines,

And they praised her.

10 Who is she who looks forth as the morning,

Fair as the moon,

Clear as the sun,

*Awesome as anarmy with banners?

The Shulamite

11 I went down to the garden of nuts

To see the verdure of the valley,

*To see whether the vine had budded

And the pomegranates had bloomed.

12 Before I was even aware,

My soul had made me

As the chariots of my noble people.

The Beloved and His Friends

13 Return, return, O Shulamite;

Return, return, that we may look upon you!

The Shulamite

What would you see in the Shulamite—

As it were, the dance of the two camps?