6 Where has your lover gone,
    most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn?
    We will ·look [search] for him with you.

² My lover has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
to ·feed [graze] in the gardens
    and to ·gather [pluck] lilies.
³ I belong to my lover,
    and my lover belongs to me [2:16; 7:11].
He ·feeds [grazes] among the lilies.

⁴ My darling, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah [^Conetime capital of the northern kingdom of Israel; the name means “pleasant”; 1 Kin. 14:17; 15:21],
    as lovely as the city of Jerusalem [^Cthe capital of the southern kingdom of Judah; Ps. 122],
    ·like an army flying flags [^Lawesome like an army under banners].
⁵ Turn your eyes from me,
    because they ·excite me too much [unsettle me].
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    streaming down Mount Gilead [4:1].
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
    just coming from ·their bath [a washing; ^Cwhite];
each one has a twin,
    and none of them is missing [4:2].
⁷ Your ·cheeks [or temple] behind your veil
    are like slices of a pomegranate [reddish orange; 4:3].
⁸ There may be sixty queens and eighty ·slave women [concubines; ^Csecondary wives]
    and so many girls you cannot count them,
⁹ but there is only one like my dove, my ·perfect [flawless] one.
    She is her mother’s only daughter,
    the ·brightest [favored] of the one who gave her birth.
The ·young women [^Ldaughters] saw her and called her ·happy [blessed];
    the queens and the ·slave women [concubines, v. 8] also praised her.

¹⁰ Who is that young woman
    that ·shines out [^Llooks down] like the dawn?
She is as ·pretty [beautiful] as the moon,
    as bright as the sun,
·as wonderful as an army flying flags [awesome like an army under banners; v. 4].

¹¹ I went down into the ·orchard [grove] of nut trees
    to see the ·blossoms [new growth] of the valley,
to look for buds on the vines,
    to see if the pomegranate trees had bloomed.
¹² Before I realized it, my desire ·for you made me feel
    like a prince in a chariot [or placed me in the chariots of Amminadab; ^Cperhaps a well-known lover like Romeo].

¹³ ·Come back [or Turn around], ·come back [or turn around], woman of Shulam [^Cfeminine form of Solomon, both based on the Hebrew root meaning “peace”; their union brings contentment].
    ·Come back [or Turn around], ·come back [or turn around],
so we may look at you!

Why do you want to look at the woman of Shulam
as you would at the dance of two armies [^Cas at a mesmerizing sight]?