Read the Bible

¹ Where has your beloved gone,
    O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned,
    that we may seek him with you?

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 am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;
    he pastures his flock among the lilies.

⁴ You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
    comely as Jerusalem,
    terrible as an army with banners.
⁵ Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
    moving 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,
    and not one among them is bereaved.
⁷ Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
    and maidens without number.
⁹ My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
    the darling of her mother,
    flawless to her that bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her happy;
    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
¹⁰ "Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
    fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
    terrible as an army with banners?"

¹¹ 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 fancy set me
    in a chariot beside my prince.^[a]

^13 [b] Return, return, O Shulammite!
    Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?^[c]