Hoheslied 6 | New International Reader’s Version

1 The other women say, ‘You are the most beautiful woman of all. Where has the one who loves you gone? Which way did he turn? We’ll help you look for him.’ The woman says, 2 ‘My love has gone down to his garden. He’s gone to the beds of spices. He’s eating in the gardens. He’s gathering lilies. 3 I belong to my love, and he belongs to me. He’s eating among the lilies.’ The king says, 4 ‘My love, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah. You are as lovely as Jerusalem. You are as majestic as troops carrying their banners. 5 Turn your eyes away from me. They overpower me. Your hair flows like a flock of black goats coming down from the hills of Gilead. 6 Your teeth are as clean as a flock of sheep coming up from being washed. Each of your teeth has its twin. Not one of them is missing. 7 Your cheeks behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. 8 There might be 60 queens and 80 concubines. There might be more virgins than anyone can count. 9 But you are my perfect dove. There isn’t anyone like you. You are your mother’s favourite daughter. The young women see you and call you blessed. The queens and concubines praise you.’ The other women say, 10 ‘Who is this woman? She is like the sunrise in all its glory. She is as beautiful as the moon. She is as bright as the sun. She is as majestic as the stars travelling across the sky.’ The king says, 11 ‘I went down to a grove of nut trees. I wanted to look at the new plants growing in the valley. I wanted to find out whether the vines had budded. I wanted to see if the pomegranate trees had bloomed. 12 Before I realised it, I was among the royal chariots of my people.’ The other women say, 13 ‘Come back to us. Come back, Shulammite woman. Come back to us. Come back. Then we can look at you.’ The king says to the women, ‘Why do you want to look at the Shulammite woman as you would watch a dancer at Mahanaim?’

English Standard Version

1 Others: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

2 She: My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze* in the gardens and to gather lilies. 3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

4 He: You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. 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 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. 7 Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. 8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. 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. 10 “Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?” 11 She: 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. 12 Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.* 13 Others: * 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?*

Hoheslied 6 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Together in the Garden of Love

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other