The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 So where has this love of yours gone, fair one? Where on earth can he be? Can we help you look for him?
1
Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
2 Never mind. My lover is already on his way to his garden, to browse among the flowers, touching the colors and forms.
2
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies.
3 I am my lover's and my lover is mine. He caresses the sweet-smelling flowers.
3
I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.
4 Dear, dear friend and lover, you're as beautiful as Tirzah, city of delights, Lovely as Jerusalem, city of dreams, the ravishing visions of my ecstasy.
4
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.
5 Your beauty is too much for me - I'm in over my head. I'm not used to this! I can't take it in. Your hair flows and shimmers like a flock of goats in the distance streaming down a hillside in the sunshine.
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Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me-- Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
6 Your smile is generous and full - expressive and strong and clean.
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Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young.
7 Your veiled cheeks are soft and radiant.
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Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
8 There's no one like her on earth, never has been, never will be.
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There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
9 She's a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her - All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her:
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My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
10 "Has anyone ever seen anything like this - dawn-fresh, moon-lovely, sun-radiant, ravishing as the night sky with its galaxies of stars?"
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"Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?"
11 One day I went strolling through the orchard, looking for signs of spring, Looking for buds about to burst into flower, anticipating readiness, ripeness.
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I went down to the nut orchard to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12 Before I knew it my heart was raptured, carried away by lofty thoughts!
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Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.
13 Dance, dance, dear Shulammite, Angel-Princess! Dance, and we'll feast our eyes on your grace! Everyone wants to see the Shulammite dance her victory dances of love and peace.
13
Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.