The Beloved

1Behold, you are fair, my love; behold, you are fair; you have doves’ eyes within your locks: your hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.   veil

2Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.   childless

3Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your speech is comely: your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within your locks.

4Your neck is like the tower of David built for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.   shields

5Your two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.   gazelles

6Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

7You are all fair, my love; there is no spot in you.   EPH 5:27 | blemish

8Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.

10How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is your love than wine! and the smell of your ointments than all spices!   perfumes

11Your lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard,   aromatic plant oil

14Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

15A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.