1 Where did your beloved go, most beautiful of women? Where did your beloved turn, so we may look for him with you?
2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to graze his flock in the gardens and gather lilies. 3 I belong to my beloved, and my beloved belongs to me. He is the one who grazes his flock among the lilies.
4 You are beautiful, my darling, like Tirzah, lovely like Jerusalem, as awesome as an army with banners. 5 Turn your eyes from me, for they excite me. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Mt. Gilead. 6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming up from being washed. All of them are twins, not one has lost her young. 7 Your temple behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate. 8 There are sixty queens and eighty mistresses, and too many young women to count, 9 but my dove, my perfect one, is unique. She's unique to her mother, she's pure to the one who gave birth to her. Young women see her and call her blessed, queens and mistresses praise her.
10 Who is this who appears like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?
11 I went down to the walnut orchard, to look at the green sprouts in the valley, to see whether the vine had budded, whether the pomegranates had blossomed. 12 Before I knew it, I imagined myself among the chariots of my noble people.
13 Return, return, Shulammite, return, return, so we may look at you! Why should you look at the Shulammite, like you watch the dance of the two camps?

International Standard Version Copyright © 1996-2008 by the ISV Foundation.