Song of Solomon 6

Together in the Garden

The Friends

¹Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Which way has he turned?

We will seek him with you.

The Bride

²My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to pasture his flock in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

The Bridegroom

⁴You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,

as lovely as Jerusalem,

as majestic as troops with banners.

• SONG 6:4[NOTE]TIRZAH. A beautiful city, later a capital of the northern kingdom before Samaria was built, 1 Kings 14:17 and 16:23. Naming it next to Jerusalem is one clue people use to date the Song. See Who Wrote It?

⁵Turn your eyes away from me,

for they have overcome me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of sheep

coming up from the washing;

each has its twin,

and not one of them is lost.

⁷Your brow behind your veil

is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and maidens without number,

• SONG 6:8[NOTE]SIXTY QUEENS. Later Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, 1 Kings 11:3. See Solomon's Wisdom and 700 Wives in 1 Kings. Here the point is that she is the one and only, 6:9.

⁹but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,

the favorite of the mother who bore her.

The maidens see her and call her blessed;

the queens and concubines sing her praises.

The Friends

¹⁰Who is this who shines like the dawn,

as fair as the moon,

as bright as the sun,

as majestic as the stars in procession?

The Bridegroom

¹¹I went down to the walnut grove

to see the blossoms of the valley,

to see if the vines were budding

or the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I realized it, my desire had set me

among the royal chariots of my people.

The Friends

¹³Come back, come back, O Shulammite!

Come back, come back, that we may gaze upon you.

The Bridegroom

Why do you look at the Shulammite,

as on the dance of Mahanaim?

• SONG 6:13[NOTE]THE SHULAMMITE. The only name she is ever given. It may mean a woman from Shunem, or it may be a woman's form of the name Solomon. In the Hebrew, this verse is 7:1.