Study Desk

[Chorus]

^(6:13)Come back, come back, girl from Shulam! Come back, come back to where we can see you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam as if she were dancing for two army camps?

[He]

⁽¹⁾How beautiful are your feet in sandals, you daughter of princes! The curves of your thighs are like a necklace made by a skilled craftsman.

⁽²⁾Your navel is like a round goblet that never lacks spiced wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled by lilies.

⁽³⁾Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

⁽⁴⁾Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bat-Rabbim, your nose like a tower in the L'vanon overlooking Dammesek.

⁽⁵⁾You hold your head like the Karmel, and the hair on your head is like purple cloth — the king is held captive in its tresses.

⁽⁶⁾How beautiful you are, my love, how charming, how delightful!

⁽⁷⁾Your appearance is stately as a palm tree, with its fruit clusters your breasts.

⁽⁸⁾I said, "I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches." May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, your breath as fragrant as apples,

⁽⁹⁾and your mouth like the finest wine.

[She]

May the wine go straight to the man I love and gently move the lips of those who are asleep.

⁽¹⁰⁾I belong to my darling, and his desire is for me.

⁽¹¹⁾Come, my darling, let's go out to the country and spend the nights in the villages.

⁽¹²⁾We'll get up early and go to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, to see if their flowers have opened, or if the pomegranate trees are in bloom. There I will give you my love. ⁽¹³⁾The mandrakes are sending out their fragrance, all kinds of choice fruits are at our doors, fruits both new and old, my darling, which I have kept in store for you.

I wish you were my brother, who nursed at my mother's breast; then, if I met you outdoors, I could kiss you, and no one would look down on me.

I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house, and she would instruct me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, fresh juice from my pomegranates.

His left arm would be under my head and his right arm around me.

I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim, not to awaken or stir up love until it wants to arise!

[Chorus]

Who is this, coming up from the desert, leaning on her darling?

[He]

I awakened you under the apple tree. It was there that your mother conceived you; there she who bore you conceived you.

[She]

Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, passion as cruel as Sh'ol; its flashes are flashes of fire, [as fierce as the] flame of Yah.

No amount of water can quench love, torrents cannot drown it. If someone gave all the wealth in his house for love, he would gain only utter contempt.

[Chorus]

We have a little sister; her breasts are still unformed. What are we to do with our sister when she is asked for in marriage?

If she is a wall, we will build on her a palace of silver; and if she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

[She]

I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; so in his view I am like one who brings peace.

Shlomo had a vineyard at Ba‘al-Hamon, and he gave the vineyard to caretakers; each of them would pay for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

My vineyard is mine; I tend it, myself. You can have the thousand, Shlomo, and the fruit-caretakers, two hundred!

[He]

You who live in the garden, friends are listening for your voice. Let me hear it! —

[She]

— Flee, my darling! Be like a gazelle or young stag on the mountains of spices!