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¹I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill of love.

²I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”

³I have taken off my robe— must I put it on again? I have washed my feet— must I soil them again?

⁴My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him.

⁵I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.

⁷The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!

⁸Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

⁹How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others, that you so charge us?

¹⁰My beloved is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rods of gold set with topaz. His body is like polished ivory decorated with lapis lazuli.

¹⁵His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

¹Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your beloved turn, that we may look for him with you?

²My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies.

³I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies.

⁴You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.

⁵Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing.

⁷Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.

⁸Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number;

⁹but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.

¹⁰Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession?

¹¹I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see if the vines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.

¹³Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, that we may gaze on you! Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim?

¹How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist’s hands.

²Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies.

³Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle.

⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus.

⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses.

⁶How beautiful you are and how pleasing, my love, with your delights!

⁷Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.

⁸I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,

⁹and your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my beloved, flowing gently over lips and teeth.

¹⁰I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

¹¹Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.

¹²Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom— there I will give you my love.

¹³The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.

¹If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.

²I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house— she who has taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.

³His left arm is under my head and his right arm embraces me.

⁴Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

⁵Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth.

⁶Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

⁷Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

⁸We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

¹⁰I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver.

¹²But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

¹³You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!

¹⁴Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.