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The Man Speaks to the Woman

Your feet are beautiful in sandals,
    you ·daughter of a prince [noble daughter].
Your round ·thighs [or hips] are like ·jewels [L rings]
    ·shaped by an artist [L the work of the hands of a craftsman].
Your navel is like a round drinking cup
    ·always filled with [L that does not lack] wine.
Your ·stomach [belly] is like a ·pile [heap] of wheat
    ·surrounded [bordered] with lilies.
Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twins of a gazelle [4:5].
Your neck is like an ivory tower [C grand, strong, dignified].
Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon [C a beautiful area located near the Dead Sea]
    near the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the mountain of Lebanon
    ·that looks down on [keeping watch toward] Damascus.
Your head is like Mount Carmel [C a prominent, rounded, and attractive mountain],
    and your hair is like purple cloth [C a royal color];
    the king is ·captured [ensnared] in its folds.
You are beautiful and pleasant;
    my love, you are full of delights.
You are like a palm tree [C tall and slender],
    and your breasts are like its bunches of fruit.
I said, “I will climb up the palm tree
    and ·take hold of [grasp] its fruit.”
Let your breasts be like ·bunches of grapes [L clusters of the vine],
    the smell of your breath like apples,
and your mouth like the best wine.

The Woman Speaks to the Man

Let this wine go down sweetly for my lover;
    may it flow gently past the lips and teeth.
10 I belong to my lover,
    and he desires only me [2:16; 6:3].
11 Come, my lover,
    let’s go out ·into the country [L to the field; C a private place for intimacy]
    and spend the night in the ·fields [villages].
12 Let’s go early to the vineyards
    and see if the buds are on the vines.
Let’s see if the blossoms have already opened
    and if the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I will give you my love.
13 The mandrakes [C an aphrodisiac; Gen. 30:14–16] give their sweet smell,
    and all the best ·fruits [gifts] are at our ·gates [entrance].
I have ·saved them [treasured them up] for you, my lover,
    the old and the new [C everything near and dear].

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