Song of Solomon 6
Holman Christian Standard Bible
6 Y Where has your love gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way has he[a] turned?
We will seek him with you.
2 W My love has gone down to his garden,(A)
to beds of spice,(B)
to feed in the gardens(C)
and gather lilies.(D)
3 I am my love’s and my love is mine;(E)
he feeds among the lilies.
4 M You are as beautiful as Tirzah,[b] my darling,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners.(F)
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
for they captivate me.(G)
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down from Gilead.(H)
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
coming up from washing,
each one having a twin,
and not one missing.[c](I)
7 Behind your veil,(J)
your brow[d] is like a slice of pomegranate.
8 There are 60 queens
and 80 concubines(K)
and young women[e] without number.
9 But my dove,(L) my virtuous one, is unique;(M)
she is the favorite of her mother,
perfect to the one who gave her birth.
Women see her and declare her fortunate;(N)
queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:
10 Y[f] Who is this[g](O) who shines like the dawn—
as beautiful as the moon,
bright as the sun,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners?(P)
11 W I came down to the walnut grove
to see the blossoms of the valley,
to see if the vines were budding(Q)
and the pomegranates blooming.
12 Before I knew it,
my desire put me
among the chariots of my noble people.[h]
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 6:1 Lit your love
- Song of Solomon 6:4 = a mountain city in Manasseh
- Song of Solomon 6:6 Lit and no one bereaved among them
- Song of Solomon 6:7 Or temple, or cheek, or lips
- Song of Solomon 6:8 Or and virgins; Sg 1:3
- Song of Solomon 6:10 Some see v. 10 as spoken by M.
- Song of Solomon 6:10 In Hb, the word for “this” is feminine.
- Song of Solomon 6:12 Or of Amminadib, or of my people of a prince; Hb obscure
- Song of Solomon 6:13 Sg 7:1 in Hb
- Song of Solomon 6:13 Or the peaceable one
- Song of Solomon 6:13 Perhaps an inhabitant of the town of Shunem, or a feminine form of Solomon’s name
- Song of Solomon 6:13 Or dance of Mahanaim
Song of Solomon 6
Common English Bible
[Daughters of Jerusalem]
6 Which way did your lover go,
you who are the most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn,
that we may look for him along with you?
[Woman]
2 My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the fragrant plantings,
to graze in the gardens,
to gather the lilies.
3 I belong to my lover and my lover belongs to me—
the one grazing among the lilies.
An overwhelming sight
[Man]
4 You are as beautiful, my dearest, as Tirzah,
as lovely as Jerusalem,
formidable as those lofty sights.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats
as they stream down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
as they come up from the washing pool—
all of them perfectly matched,
not one of them lacks its twin.
7 Like a slice of pomegranate is the curve of your face
behind the veil of your hair.
8 There may be sixty queens
and eighty secondary wives,
young women beyond counting,
9 but my dove, my perfect one, is one of a kind.
To her mother she’s the only one,
radiant to the one who bore her.
Young women see her and declare her fortunate;
queens and secondary wives praise her.
10 Who is this, gazing down like the morning star,
beautiful as the full moon,
radiant as the sun,
formidable as those lofty sights?
Transported
[Man]
11 To the nut grove I went down
to look upon the fresh growth in the valley,
to see whether the vine was in flower,
whether the pomegranates had bloomed.
12 I hardly knew myself;
she had set me in an official’s chariot![a]
Graceful dancer
[Man]
13 [b] Come back, come back, Shulammite![c]
Come back, come back, so we may admire you.
How you all admire the Shulammite
as she whirls between two circles of dancers!
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 6:12 Or I hardly knew what happened; my passion set me in an official's chariot! LXX, Vulg Aminadab's chariots; Heb uncertain
- Song of Solomon 6:13 7:1 in Heb
- Song of Solomon 6:13 A name or title for the woman
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