1 HOW FAIR you are, my love [he said], how very fair! Your eyes behind your veil [remind me] of those of a dove; your hair [makes me think of the black, wavy fleece] of a flock of [the Arabian] goats which one sees trailing down Mount Gilead [beyond the Jordan on the frontiers of the desert].
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes which have come up from the washing, of which all are in pairs, and none is missing among them.
3 Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies.
6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, [in my thoughts] I will get to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense [to him whom my soul adores].
7 [He exclaimed] O my love, how beautiful you are! There is no flaw in you! [John 14:18; Eph. 5:27.]
8 Come away with me from Lebanon, my [promised] bride, come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the top of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. [II Cor. 11:2, 3.]
9 You have ravished my heart and given me courage, my sister, my [promised] bride; you have ravished my heart and given me courage with one look from your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.
10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my [promised] bride! How much better is your love than wine! And the fragrance of your ointments than all spices! [John 15:9; Rom. 8:35.]
11 Your lips, O my [promised] bride, drop honey as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue. And the odor of your garments is like the odor of Lebanon.
12 A garden enclosed and barred is my sister, my [promised] bride–a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates or a paradise with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants, [John 15:5; Eph. 5:9.]
14 Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief spices.
15 You are a fountain [springing up] in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon. [John 4:10; 7:37, 38.]
16 [You have called me a garden, she said] Oh, I pray that the [cold] north wind and the [soft] south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out [in abundance for you in whom my soul delights]. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits.