6 Where has your beloved gone,
    O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned
    that we may seek him with you?^(A)

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.^(B)
3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine;
    he pastures his flock among the lilies.^(C)

¹¹ I went down to the nut orchard
    to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.^(K)
12 Before I was aware, my desire set me
    in a chariot beside my prince.^[a]

^13 [b]Return, return, O Shulammite!
    Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?^[c](L)

⁶ How fair and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, delectable maiden!^[d](Q)
7 You are stately^[e] as a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its branches.”
O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,^(R)
9 and your kisses^[f] like the best wine
    that goes down^[g] smoothly,
    gliding over lips and teeth.^[h]

¹⁰ I am my beloved’s,
    and his desire is for me.^(S)
11 Come, my beloved,
    let us go forth into the fields
    and lodge in the villages;
¹² let us go out early to the vineyards;
    let us see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
    and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.^(T)
13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
    and over our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
    which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.^(U)

8 O that you were like a brother to me,
    who nursed at my mother’s breast!
If I met you outside, I would kiss you,
    and no one would despise me.
² I would lead you and bring you
    into my mother’s house
    and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^[i]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    from the juice of my pomegranates.^(V)
3 O that his left hand were under my head
    and that his right hand embraced me!^(W)
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!^(X)

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
    there she who bore you was in labor.^(Y)

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
    passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    a raging flame.^(Z)
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
    all the wealth of one’s house,
    it^[j] would be utterly scorned.

⁸ We have a little sister,
    and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister,
    on the day when she is spoken for?^(AA)
9 If she is a wall,
    we will build upon her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
    we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
¹⁰ I was a wall,
    and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
    as one who brings^[k] peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
    he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;
    each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.^(AB)
12 My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;
    you, O Solomon, may have the thousand
    and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³ O you who dwell in the gardens,
    my companions are listening for your voice;
    let me hear it.^(AC)

¹⁴ Make haste, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
    upon the mountains of spices!^(AD)

“Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
    burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs,
for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
    than the children of the one who is married.”^(K)