4 How beautiful you are, my darling.
How very beautiful!
Behind your veil,
your eyes are doves.^(A)
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down Mount Gilead.^(B)
2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep
coming up from washing,
each one bearing twins,
and none has lost its young.^[a](C)
3 Your lips are like a scarlet cord,^(D)
and your mouth^[b] is lovely.
Behind your veil,
your brow^[c] is like a slice of pomegranate.^(E)
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,^(F)
constructed in layers.
A thousand shields are hung on it—
all of them shields of warriors.
⁵ Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,^(G) that feed among the lilies.
⁶ Until the day breaks^[d]
and the shadows flee,^(H)
I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.^(I)
7 You are absolutely beautiful,^(J) my darling;
there is no imperfection in you.

¹⁶ Awaken,^(Y) north wind;
come, south wind.
Blow on my garden,
and spread the fragrance of its spices.
Let my love come to his garden
and eat its choicest fruits.^(Z)

5 I have come to my garden—my sister, my bride.
I gather^[h] my myrrh with my spices.
I eat my honeycomb with my honey.
I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends!
Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!^[i](AA)

² I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My love was knocking!^(AB)

Open to me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew,
my hair with droplets of the night.

³ I have taken off my clothing.^(AC)
How can I put it back on?
I have washed my feet.
How can I get them dirty?
⁴ My love thrust his hand through the opening,
and my feelings were stirred for him.
⁵ I rose to open for my love.
My hands dripped with myrrh,^(AD)
my fingers with flowing myrrh
on the handles of the bolt.
⁶ I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away.
My heart sank^[j] because he had left.^[k]
I sought him, but did not find him.^(AE)
I called him, but he did not answer.
⁷ The guards who go about the city found me.^(AF)
They beat and wounded me;
they took my cloak^[l] from me—
the guardians of the walls.^(AG)
8 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you,^(AH)
if you find my love,
tell him that I am lovesick.^(AI)

⁹ What makes the one you love better than another,
most beautiful of women?^(AJ)
What makes him better than another,
that you would give us this charge?

¹⁰ My love is fit and strong,^[m](AK)
notable among ten thousand.^(AL)

6 Where has your love gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way has he^[t] turned?
We will seek him with you.

² My love has gone down to his garden,^(AV)
to beds of spice,^(AW)
to feed in the gardens^(AX)
and gather lilies.^(AY)
3 I am my love’s and my love is mine;^(AZ)
he feeds among the lilies.

⁴ You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners.^(BA)
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
for they captivate me.^(BB)
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down from Gilead.^(BC)
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
coming up from washing,
each one having a twin,
and not one missing.^[u](BD)
7 Behind your veil,^(BE)
your brow^[v] is like a slice of pomegranate.
⁸ There are sixty queens
and eighty concubines^(BF)
and young women^[w] without number.
⁹ But my dove,^(BG) my virtuous one, is unique;^(BH)
she is the favorite of her mother,
perfect to the one who gave her birth.
Women see her and declare her fortunate;^(BI)
queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:
¹⁰ Who is this^(BJ) who shines like the dawn,
as beautiful as the moon,
bright as the sun,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners?^(BK)

¹¹ I came down to the walnut grove
to see the blossoms of the valley,
to see if the vines were budding^(BL)
and the pomegranates blooming.
¹² I didn’t know what was happening to me.
I felt like I was
in a chariot with a nobleman.^[x]

¹³ Come back, come back, Shulammite!^[y]
Come back, come back, that we may look at you!

How you gaze at the Shulammite,
as you look at the dance^(BM) of the two camps!^[z](BN)