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

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

^3. I am my lover's and my lover is mine; he browses among the lilies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

^11. I 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.

^12. Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people. [1]

^13. Come 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?