Chapter 6

¹ My kinsman is gone down to his garden, to the beds of spice, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. ² I am my kinsman's, and my kinsman is mine, who feeds among the lilies.

³ Thou art fair, my companion, as Pleasure, beautiful as Jerusalem, terrible as armies set in array. ⁴ Turn away thine eyes from before me, for they have ravished me: thy hair is as flocks of goats which have appeared from Galaad. ⁵ Thy teeth are as flocks of shorn sheep, that have gone up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is none barren among them: thy lips are as a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely. ⁶ Thy cheek is like the rind of a pomegranate, being seen without thy veil.

⁷ There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. ⁸ My dove, my perfect one is one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and the queens will pronounce her blessed, yea, and the concubines, and they will praise her. ⁹ Who is this that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, choice as the sun, terrible as armies set in array?

¹⁰ I went down to the garden of nuts, to look at the fruits of the valley, to see if the

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vine flowered, if the pomegranates blossomed. ¹¹ There I will give thee my breasts: my soul knew it not: it made me as the chariots of Aminadab.

¹² Return, return, O Sunamite; return, return, and we will look at thee.

What will ye see in the Sunamite? ¹She comes as bands of armies.

Chapter 7

¹ Thy steps are beautiful in shoes, O daughter of the prince: the joints of thy thighs are like chains, the work of the craftsman. ² Thy navel is as a turned bowl, not wanting liquor; thy belly is as a heap of wheat set about with lilies. ³ Thy two breasts are as two twin fawns. ⁴ Thy neck is as an ivory tower; thine eyes are as pools in Esebon, by the gates of the ²daughter of many: thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, looking toward Damascus. ⁵ Thy head upon thee is as Carmel, and the curls of thy hair like scarlet; the king is bound in the ³galleries. ⁶ How beautiful art thou, and how sweet art thou, my love! ⁷ This is thy greatness in thy delights: thou wast made like a palm tree, and thy breasts to cluster. ⁸ I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its high boughs: and now shall thy breasts be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose of apples; ⁹ and thy throat as good wine, going well with my kinsman, suiting my lips and teeth.

¹⁰ I am my kinsman's, and ⁴his desire is toward me. ¹¹ Come, my kinsman, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. ¹² Let us go early into the vineyards; let us see if the vine has flowered, if the blossoms have appeared, if the pomegranates have blossomed; there will I give thee my breasts. ¹³ The mandrakes have given a smell, and at our doors are all kinds of choice fruits, new and old. O my kinsman, I have kept them for thee.