Read the Bible

¹Where has your beloved gone,

O fairest among women?

Which way has your beloved turned,

that we may seek him with you?

²My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to pasture his flock in the gardens,

and to gather lilies.

³I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,

comely as Jerusalem,

terrible as an army with banners.

⁵Turn away your eyes from me,

for they overwhelm me!

Your hair is like a flock of goats,

moving down the slopes of Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,

that have come up from the washing;

all of them bear twins,

and not one among them is bereaved.

⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and maidens without number.

⁹My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

the darling of her mother,

flawless to her that bore her.

The maidens saw her and called her happy;

the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

¹⁰‘Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,

fair as the moon, bright as the sun,

terrible as an army with banners?’

¹¹I went down to the nut orchard,

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to see whether the vines had budded,

whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I was aware, my fancy set me

in a chariot beside my prince.

¹³Return, return, O Shulammite!

Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,

as upon a dance before two armies?