Category: Song of Songs

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other (SNG 6:3-7:10)

He

[6:4] You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.

[6:5] Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

[6:6] Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young.

[6:7] Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

[6:8] There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

[6:9] My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

[6:10] “Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”

She

[6:11] I 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.

[6:12] Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

[6:13] Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?

[7:1] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand.

[7:2] Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies.

[7:3] Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

[7:4] Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus.

[7:5] Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses.

[7:6] How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights!

[7:7] Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters.

[7:8] I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples,

[7:9] and your mouth like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.

[7:10] I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love (SNG 7:11-13)

[7:11] Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages;

[7:12] let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

[7:13] The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

Longing for Her Beloved (SNG 8:1-7)

[8:1] Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me.

[8:2] I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother— she who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate.

[8:3] His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!

[8:4] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

[8:5] Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.

[8:6] Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.

[8:7] Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

Final Advice (SNG 8:7-14)

Others

[8:8] We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?

[8:9] If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

[8:10] I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds peace.

[8:11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

[8:12] My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

[8:13] O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.

She

[8:14] Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.