The Message Bible MSG
World English Bible WEB
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, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? Beloved
2 Never mind. My lover is already on his way to his garden, to browse among the flowers, touching the colors and forms.
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My beloved has gone down to his garden, To the beds of spices, To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
3 I am my lover's and my lover is mine. He caresses the sweet-smelling flowers.
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I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He browses 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.
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You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, 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 have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, That lie along the side 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, Which have come up from the washing; Of which every one has twins; None is bereaved among them.
7 Your veiled cheeks are soft and radiant.
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Your temples are like a piece 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, 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 unique. She is her mother's only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed, The queens and the concubines, 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 she who looks forth as the morning, Beautiful as the moon, Clear 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 into the nut tree grove, To see the green plants of the valley, To see whether the vine budded, And the pomegranates were in flower.
12 Before I knew it my heart was raptured, carried away by lofty thoughts!
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Without realizing it, My desire set me with my royal people's chariots. Friends
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.
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Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Lover Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, As at the dance of Mahanaim?