Together in the Garden

The Friends

¹ Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Which way has he turned?

We will seek him with you.

The Bride

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to pasture his flock in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³ I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

The Bridegroom

⁴ You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,

as lovely as Jerusalem,

as majestic as troops with banners.^*

⁵ Turn your eyes away from me,

for they have overcome me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down from Gilead.

⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep

coming up from the washing;

each has its twin,

and not one of them is lost.

⁷ Your brow behind your veil

is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and maidens^* without number,

⁹ but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,

the favorite of the mother who bore her.

The maidens see her and call her blessed;

the queens and concubines sing her praises.

The Friends

¹⁰ Who is this who shines like the dawn,

as fair as the moon,

as bright as the sun,

as majestic as the stars in procession?^*

The Bridegroom

¹¹ I went down to the walnut grove

to see the blossoms of the valley,

to see if the vines were budding

or the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹² Before I realized it, my desire had set me

among the royal^* chariots of my people.

The Friends

¹³ Come back, come back, O Shulammite!

Come back, come back, that we may gaze upon you.

The Bridegroom

Why do you look at the Shulammite,

as on the dance of Mahanaim?