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¹ WHERE has your beloved gone, O you most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you?² My beloved has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.³ I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine; he feeds among the lilies.

⁴ You are beautiful and desirable, O my beloved, comely as Jerusalem, and esteemed as one chosen among beauties.⁵ Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me; your hair is like a flock of goats which come up from the mount of Gilead.⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which go up from washing; every one of them bears twins, and none is bereft among them.⁷ Your cheeks, behind your veil, are like two pieces of pomegranate.⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number.⁹ My perfect dove is but one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of her that bore her. The daughters saw her and praised her; yea, the queens and the concubines also praised her.¹⁰ Who is she that looks forth like the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and revered as a princess?

¹¹ I went down into the garden of walnut trees to see the fruit of the valley and to see whether the vine had blossomed and whether the pomegranates had budded.¹² And being unfamiliar with the place, I sat in the public chariot which was ready.¹³ Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon you. What will you see in the Shulamite, who comes down joyfully, like the rejoicing of a host?