Expressions of Praise

The Beloved

7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,O prince’s daughter!The curves of your thighs are like jewels,The work of the hands of a skillful workman.² Your navel is a rounded goblet;It lacks no blended beverage.Your waist is a heap of wheatSet about with lilies.³ Your two breasts are like two fawns,Twins of a gazelle.⁴ Your neck is like an ivory tower,Your eyes like the pools in HeshbonBy the gate of Bath Rabbim.Your nose is like the tower of LebanonWhich looks toward Damascus.⁵ Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,And the hair of your head is like purple;A king is held captive by your tresses.

⁶ How fair and how pleasant you are,O love, with your delights!⁷ This stature of yours is like a palm tree,And your breasts like its clusters.⁸ I said, “I will go up to the palm tree,I will take hold of its branches.”Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine,The fragrance of your breath like apples,⁹ And the roof of your mouth like the best wine.

The Shulamite

The wine goes down smoothly for my beloved,Moving gently the lips of sleepers.^[a]10 I am my beloved’s,And his desire is toward me.

¹¹ Come, my beloved,Let us go forth to the field;Let us lodge in the villages.¹² Let us get up early to the vineyards;Let us see if the vine has budded,Whether the grape blossoms are open,And the pomegranates are in bloom.There I will give you my love.¹³ The mandrakes give off a fragrance,And at our gates are pleasant fruits,All manner, new and old,Which I have laid up for you, my beloved.