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The Man Speaks to the Woman

My darling, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah [C onetime capital of the northern kingdom of Israel; the name means “pleasant”; 1 Kin. 14:17; 15:21],
    as lovely as the city of Jerusalem [C the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah; Ps. 122],
    ·like an army flying flags [L awesome like an army under banners].
Turn your eyes from me,
    because they ·excite me too much [unsettle me].
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    streaming down Mount Gilead [4:1].
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
    just coming from ·their bath [a washing; C white];
each one has a twin,
    and none of them is missing [4:2].
Your ·cheeks [or temple] behind your veil
    are like slices of a pomegranate [reddish orange; 4:3].
There may be sixty queens and eighty ·slave women [concubines; C secondary wives]
    and so many girls you cannot count them,
but there is only one like my dove, my ·perfect [flawless] one.
    She is her mother’s only daughter,
    the ·brightest [favored] of the one who gave her birth.
The ·young women [L daughters] saw her and called her ·happy [blessed];
    the queens and the ·slave women [concubines, v. 8] also praised her.

The Young Women Praise the Woman

10 Who is that young woman
    that ·shines out [L looks down] like the dawn?
She is as ·pretty [beautiful] as the moon,
    as bright as the sun,
·as wonderful as an army flying flags [awesome like an army under banners; v. 4].

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