The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Message Bible MSG
1 [He] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, you daughter of princes! The curves of your thighs are like a necklace made by a skilled craftsman. Your navel is like a round goblet that never lacks spiced wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled by lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns,
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Shapely and graceful your sandaled feet, and queenly your movement - Your limbs are lithe and elegant, the work of a master artist.
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Your body is a chalice, wine-filled. Your skin is silken and tawny like a field of wheat touched by the breeze.
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Your breasts are like fawns, twins of a gazelle.
4 twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bat-Rabbim, your nose like a tower in the L'vanon overlooking Dammesek. You hold your head like the Karmel, and the hair on your head is like purple cloth -the king is held captive in its tresses.
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Your neck is carved ivory, curved and slender. Your eyes are wells of light, deep with mystery. Quintessentially feminine! Your profile turns all heads, commanding attention.
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The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges - stirrings of desire, longings for the heights - Remind me of you, and I'm spoiled for anyone else!
6 How beautiful you are, my love, how charming, how delightful! Your appearance is stately as a palm tree, with its fruit clusters your breasts. I said, "I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches."
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Your beauty, within and without, is absolute, dear lover, close companion.
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You are tall and supple, like the palm tree, and your full breasts are like sweet clusters of dates.
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I say, "I'm going to climb that palm tree! I'm going to caress its fruit!" Oh yes! Your breasts will be clusters of sweet fruit to me, Your breath clean and cool like fresh mint,
9 May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, your breath as fragrant as apples, and your mouth like the finest wine. [She] May the wine go straight to the man I love and gently move the lips of those who are asleep.
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your tongue and lips like the best wine. Yes, and yours are, too - my love's kisses flow from his lips to mine.
10 I belong to my darling, and his desire is for me.
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I am my lover's. I'm all he wants. I'm all the world to him!
11 Come, my darling, let's go out to the country and spend the nights in the villages.
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Come, dear lover - let's tramp through the countryside.
12 We'll get up early and go to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, to see if their flowers have opened, or if the pomegranate trees are in bloom. There I will give you my love.
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Let's sleep at some wayside inn, then rise early and listen to bird-song. Let's look for wildflowers in bloom, blackberry bushes blossoming white, Fruit trees festooned with cascading flowers. And there I'll give myself to you, my love to your love!
13 The mandrakes are sending out their fragrance, all kinds of choice fruits are at our doors, fruits both new and old, my darling, which I have kept in store for you.
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Love-apples drench us with fragrance, fertility surrounds, suffuses us, Fruits fresh and preserved that I've kept and saved just for you, my love.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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.