The Words Of Love

Friends

⁸ If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
follow the tracks of the sheep
and graze your young goats
by the tents of the shepherds.

He

⁹ I liken you, my darling, to a mare
among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
¹⁰ Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
¹¹ We will make you earrings of gold,
studded with silver.

She

¹² While the king was at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.

He

¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.

She

¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved!
Oh, how charming!
And our bed is verdant.

He

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are firs.

She

¹ I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

He

² Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the young women.

She

³ Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
⁴ Let him lead me to the banquet hall,
and let his banner over me be love.
⁵ Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
⁶ His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.
⁷ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.