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The Woman[a]

Why would you look at the Shulammite.
    as at the dance of Mahanaim?[b]

The Friends or The Man

How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O prince’s daughter!
Your hips are curved like a necklace,
the work of the hands of a craftsman.
Your navel is a round mixing bowl.
It never lacks blended wine.
Your belly is a mound of wheat, encircled by lilies.
Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bat Rabbim.[c]
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,
    overlooking Damascus.
Your head rises above you like Mount Carmel.
The flowing hair of your head is like purple.
The king is captivated by its curls.

The Man

How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
O loved one, daughter of delights![d]
Your height is like that of the date palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
I said, “I will climb the date palm.
I will take hold of its bunches of fruit.”
May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
10a and your mouth like the best wine—

The Woman

10b —flowing to my lover,
gliding smoothly over lips and teeth.[e]
11 I belong to my lover,
and his desire is for me.

12 Come, my lover,
let us go to the fields.
Let us spend the night in the villages.
13 Let us go early to the vineyards.
We will see if the vines have budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
if the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give my love to you.
The mandrakes send out their fragrance.
At our door is every delicacy,
new as well as old,
that I have stored up for you, my lover.

Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 7:1 The identity of the speaker of this verse is uncertain.
  2. Song of Songs 7:1 Mahanaim is the name of a city. It means two camps. Here the term may refer to two lines of dancers.
  3. Song of Songs 7:5 Bat Rabbim means Daughter of Nobles.
  4. Song of Songs 7:7 The translation follows a textual variant supported by the ancient versions. The Hebrew text reads O love, with delights.
  5. Song of Songs 7:10 The reading lips and teeth is well attested by the ancient versions. The Hebrew reads lips of sleepers.