Solomon’s Praise of His Dancing Maiden
7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O royal princess![a]
The curves of your thighs[b] are like jewels,[c]
the work of the hands of a craftsman.
2 Your navel is a round wine-mixing bowl[d]
that does not lack mixed[e] wine!
Your belly is a heap of wheat
encircled with lilies.
3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory;
your eyes are pools in Heshbon at the gate of Beth Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
looking out over Damascus.[f]
5 Your head crowns you like Carmel;[g][h]
the flowing locks of your head are like purple tapestry;[i]
a king is held captive in the tresses!
6 How beautiful you are and how pleasant,
O loved one in the delights!
7 Your stature[j] is like the palm tree,
and your breasts are like clusters.
8 I say, “I will climb up the palm tree;
I will lay hold of its fruit clusters.”
Let your breasts be pleasing like clusters of the vine
and the scent of your breath like the apples.
9 Your palate is like the best wine that goes down for my beloved,
smoothly gliding over my lips and teeth.[k]
Mutual Possession Refrain
10 I belong to my beloved,[l]
and he desires me![m]
Rendezvous in the Countryside
11 Come, my beloved, let us go out to the countryside;[n]
let us spend the night[o] in the villages.
12 Let us rise early to go[p] to the vineyards;
let us see whether the vine has budded,[q]
whether the grape blossom has opened,
and whether the pomegranates are in bloom;[r]
there I will give my love to you.
13 The mandrakes give off their fragrance,
and over our doorway is every kind of delicious fruit;[s]
both fresh and dried fruit I have stored up[t] for you, O my beloved.
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 7:1 Or “O daughter of leader”
- Song of Solomon 7:1 Literally “thigh”
- Song of Solomon 7:1 Literally “ornaments”
- Song of Solomon 7:2 Literally “a bowl of the roundness”
- Song of Solomon 7:2 Or “blended”
- Song of Solomon 7:4 Literally “looking out over the face of Damascus”
- Song of Solomon 7:5 Literally “Your head is on you like the Carmel”
- Song of Solomon 7:5 Because of its height and fertility, Mount Carmel is often associated with royalty
- Song of Solomon 7:5 Literally “the purple”
- Song of Solomon 7:7 Literally “this your height”
- Song of Solomon 7:9 Or “over lips of sleepers.” One Hebrew textual tradition preserves the reading “lips of those who sleep” (MT). Another Hebrew tradition reads “my lips and my teeth,” as reflected by the ancient versions (LXX, Latin Vulgate, Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta). The latter is adopted here since it makes the most sense poetically
- Song of Solomon 7:10 Literally “I am for my beloved”
- Song of Solomon 7:10 Literally “and his desire is for me.” Or “and his desire belongs to me”
- Song of Solomon 7:11 Literally “go forth into the field”
- Song of Solomon 7:11 Or “lodge”
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Or “let us go”
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Or “sprouted”
- Song of Solomon 7:12 Literally “have bloomed”
- Song of Solomon 7:13 Or “over our doorways all choice things”
- Song of Solomon 7:13 Literally “new also old I have laid up”