1 ARST My dear one, you are beautiful, you are very beautiful! Beneath your veil, your eyes are as gentle and as beautiful as doves. Your long black hair moves from side to side like a flock of black goats moving down the slopes of Mount Gilead. BSB BSB: How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
2 ARST Your teeth are very white, white like a flock of sheep whose wool people have just cut off and which have just come up from washing in a stream. You have all of your teeth on both sides of your mouth; none of them is missing. BSB BSB: Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.
3 ARST Your lips are the color of bright red thread, and your mouth is beautiful. Beneath your veil, your cheeks are round and rosy like the halves of a pomegranate. BSB BSB: Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.
4 ARST Your long neck is beautiful, like the tower of King David that was built using layers of stone. The beauty of your jeweled neck is like a thousand shields hanging on the walls of a tower; like the beauty of a thousand warrior' s shields hanging from a tower. BSB BSB: Your neck is like the tower of David, built with rows of stones; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.
5 ARST Your two breasts are as beautiful as two young twin gazelles that eat grass among lilies. BSB BSB: Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
6 ARST Until the evening breeze blows, and the sun sets, I will go to your breasts, because they are like two hills that smell like pleasant spices. BSB BSB: Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
7 ARST My dear one, you are completely beautiful; your body is perfectly formed and has no blemish! BSB BSB: You are altogether beautiful, my darling; in you there is no flaw.
8 ARST Come back to me, my bride. It is as though you are in Lebanon far away, where I cannot reach you. Come back to me. It is as though you are inaccessible on the top of Mount Hermon or the nearby peaks, where I cannot go to you. Come from the mountains, where the lions have their dens and where the leopards live. BSB BSB: Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon! Descend from the peak of Amana, from the summits of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.
9 ARST You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, by only once quickly looking at me with your eyes, and by one strand of jewels in your necklace, you have obtained my full affection. BSB BSB: You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck.
10 ARST You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, your love for me is delightful! It is more delightful than wine! The fragrance of your perfume is more pleasing than any spice! BSB BSB: How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all spices.
11 ARST When you kiss me, my bride, it is as delightful as eating honey. Your kisses are as sweet as milk mixed with honey. The aroma of your clothes is like the aroma of cedar trees in Lebanon. BSB BSB: Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
12 ARST You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, you are like a garden that the owner keeps locked so that other men cannot enter it; you are like a spring or a fountain that is covered so that others may not drink from it. BSB BSB: My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
13 ARST You are like an orchard of pomegranate trees full of delicious fruit, and plenty of plants that produce henna and nard spices, BSB BSB: Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,
14 ARST and saffron and calamus and cinnamon and many other kinds of incense, myrrh and aloes, and many other fine spices. BSB BSB: with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.
15 ARST You are like a spring in a garden, like a well of fresh- flowing water, and like streams that flow down from the mountains of Lebanon. The woman speaking to the man she loves BSB BSB: You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.
16 ARST I want the north wind and the south wind to come, and blow on me, so that the fragrance of my body will spread through the air and attract the man I love. You whom I love, I am like your garden. I want you to come and enjoy my body, like someone comes into a garden and enjoys eating the delicious fruit that grows there. BSB BSB: Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.