1Others: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? (So 5:9)
Together in the Garden of Love
2She: My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze[1] in the gardens and to gather lilies. (So 1:7; So 2:1; So 4:16; So 5:1; So 5:13)3I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies. (So 2:16; So 7:10)
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
4He: You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. (1Ki 14:17; Ps 48:2; Ps 50:2; So 1:5; So 1:15; So 6:10; La 2:15; Re 21:2)5Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. (So 4:1)6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young. (So 4:2)7Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. (So 4:3)8There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. (1Ki 11:3; Ps 45:9; Ps 45:14; So 3:7)9My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. (Ge 30:13; Pr 17:25; So 2:14; So 5:2; So 6:8)10“Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?” (So 3:6; So 6:4)11She: 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. (Job 8:11; So 7:12)12Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.[2] (2Ki 2:12; 2Ki 13:14; Ps 35:8; Pr 5:6)13Others: [3] Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you. He: Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?[4] (Ge 32:2; Jud 21:21; 2Sa 17:24; 1Ki 1:3; 2Ki 4:12)