Song Of Songs 6

NIRV — New International Reader's Version Bible (NIRV)

AMP — Amplified Bible (AMP)

Verse 1

“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

“Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where is your beloved hiding himself,
That we may seek him with you?”

(The Shulammite Bride)

Verse 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.

“My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of balsam,
To feed his flock in the gardens
And gather lilies.

Verse 3

I belong to my love, and he belongs to me.
He’s eating among the lilies.”

The king says

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
He who feeds his flock among the lilies.”

(The Bridegroom)

Verse 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.

“You are as beautiful as ^[a]Tirzah, my darling,
As lovely as Jerusalem,
As majestic as an army with banners!

Verse 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.

“Turn your [flashing] eyes away from me,
For they have confused and overcome me;
Your hair is like [the shimmering black fleece of] a flock of [Arabian] goats
That have descended from Mount Gilead.

Verse 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.

“Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
Which have come up from their washing,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has lost her young.

Verse 7

Your cheeks behind your veil
are like the halves of a pomegranate.

“Your temples are like a slice of the pomegranate
Behind your veil.

Verse 8

There might be 60 queens and 80 concubines.
There might be more virgins than anyone can count.

“There are sixty queens and eighty ^[b]concubines,
And maidens without number;

Verse 9

But you are my perfect dove.
    There isn’t anyone like you.
    You are your mother’s favorite daughter.
The young women see you and call you blessed.
    The queens and concubines praise you.”

The other women say

But my dove, my perfect one, stands alone [above them all];
She is her mother’s only daughter;
She is the pure child of the one who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed and happy,
The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

Verse 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 traveling across the sky.”

The king says

‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn,
Fair and beautiful as the full moon,
Clear and pure as the sun,
As majestic as an army with banners?’

Verse 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.

“I went down to the orchard of nut trees
To see the flowers of the valley,
To see whether the grapevine had budded
And the pomegranates were in flower.

Verse 12

Before I realized it,
I was among the royal chariots of my people.”

The other women say

“Before I was aware [of what was happening], my desire had brought me
Into the area of the princes of my people [the king’s retinue].”

(The Chorus)

Verse 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?”

“Return, return, O Shulammite;
Return, return, that we may gaze at you.”