unfoldingWord® Translation Questions
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| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The Song of Songs, which {is} of Solomon. | This is King Solomon’s most beautiful song. The woman thinks about the man she loves |
Solomon is the writer of Song of Songs.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for better {is} your love than wine. | I wish he would kiss me on my lips, The woman speaks internally to the absent man because how you love me is more delightful than wine. |
The young woman asks her lover to kiss her with the kisses of his mouth.
The young woman says her lover’s love is better than wine.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| As for the scent of your oils—{they are} good; oil poured out {is} your name. Therefore, marriageable women love you. | The fragrance of the perfume on your skin is very pleasing. More and more people are honoring you, just as the fragrance of the perfume that you have put on your skin is spreading farther and farther. That is why the other young women are attracted to you. |
The young woman says his name is like fragrant oil.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me {to} his bedroom. Let us be glad and rejoice in you. Let us profess your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. | Take me quickly; take me to your home. The woman speaking to herself He is like a king to me; I desire him to bring me into his bedroom. The women of Jerusalem speaking about the man We are very happy about you; we say that how you love is better than wine. The woman speaking to the man about the young women of Jerusalem It is not surprising that the young women adore you. The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
The king has brought the young woman into his rooms.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {am} black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. | You young women of Jerusalem, I am brown but beautiful; my dark skin is like the tents in Kedar, and I am beautiful like the curtains in Solomon’s palace. |
The young woman describes her skin as dark but lovely like tents of Kedar, like curtains of Solomon.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Do not look at me, that I {am} black, that the sun scorched me. The sons of my mother were angry with me; they appointed me {as} keeper of the vineyards— my vineyard that {is} mine I have not kept. | But do not stare at me because the sun has made my skin dark; my brothers were angry with me, so they forced me to work outside in the sunshine in the vineyards, so I was not able to take good care of my skin. The woman speaking to the man she loves |
She does not want the other women to stare at her because her skin is scorched.
The young woman’s brothers made her a keeper of the vineyards.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Declare to me, {you} whom my soul loves: where do you graze? Where do you make {your flocks} lie down at noontime? For why should I be like a woman who covers herself beside the flocks of your companions? | You whom I love, where will you take your flock of sheep today? Where will you allow them to rest at noontime? I want to know because it is not right for me to wander around like a prostitute, looking for you among the flocks that belong to your friends. The man answering the woman he loves |
She asks him where he feeds his flock and where he rests his flock at noontime.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| If you do not know, most beautiful among women, go out in the footprints of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the tents of the shepherds. | You who are the most beautiful of all the women, if you search for me and do not know where I will take my sheep, follow the tracks of the sheep. Then allow your young goats to eat grass near the shepherds’ tents. |
He tells her to follow the tracks of his flock to the shepherds’ tents.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| To a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh I liken you, my darling. | You excite me, my dear one, like a mare walking among Pharoah’s stallions. |
He compares her to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings; your neck {is beautiful} with necklaces. | Your cheeks are lovely with jewelry, and your neck is lovely with strings of beads around it. |
He says earrings are on her cheeks and strings of jewels are on her neck.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Earrings of gold we will make for you, with studs of silver. | We will make for you some gold earrings that are inlaid with silver. The woman speaking to herself |
He says he will make for her gold earrings with silver studs.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| While the king {was} on his couch, my nard gave off its scent. | During the time that he who is like a king to me reclined on his couch, the fragrance of my perfume spread around the room. |
The king was lying on his couch while the fragrance of the woman’s perfume spread.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| A bundle of myrrh {is} my beloved to me; between my breasts it stays. | During the night I desire to cradle the man I love between my breasts; to me, he is like the bag of sweet-smelling perfume which I keep there. |
Her beloved spends the night lying between her breasts.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| A cluster of henna blossoms {is} my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engedi. | The man whom I love is like a bunch of the fragrant flowers that are in the grape farms of the city of En Gedi. The man speaking to the woman he loves |
Her beloved is like a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of En Gedi.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Behold you, beautiful, my darling! Behold you, beautiful! Your eyes {are} doves. | My dear one, you are beautiful; you are very beautiful! Your eyes are as gentle and beautiful as doves. The woman speaking to the man she loves |
He says her eyes are like doves.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Behold you! {You are} handsome, my beloved, truly pleasant. Indeed, our couch is leafy. | You whom I love, you are very good-looking, you are delightful! The green grass will be like a bed where we lie down. |
Leafy plants serve as their bed.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The beams of our house {are} cedars; our rafters {are} pine. | Branches of cedar trees will shade us; branches of pine trees will be like a roof over our heads. |
The beams and rafters are made of cedar and pine trees.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {am} a wildflower of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. | I am like an insignificant flower on the plains, like an insignificant lily growing in the valleys. The man speaking to the woman he loves |
She describes herself as a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Like a lily among thorns, so {is} my darling among the daughters. | Among all the other young women, you, my dear one, are like a lily growing among thorns! The woman speaking to herself |
He said she was like a lily among thorns.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so {is} my beloved among the sons. In his shadow I greatly delighted, and I sat, and his fruit {is} sweet to my palate. | Compared to other men, you, the one whom I love, are like an apple tree that produces delicious fruit and grows in the forest among common trees. You are like a tree whose shade protects me from the sun, and your being close to me is delightful, like eating sweet fruit. |
The woman describes her young man as an apple tree among the trees of the forest.
She sat down under his shadow with great delight.
His fruit was sweet to her taste.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| He brought me to the house of wine and his banner over me {is} love. | I want you to lead me to the place where we can make love, and it is evident that you love me very much. The woman speaking to the man she loves |
Her young man brought her to the house of wine.
His banner over her was love.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Sustain me with raisin cakes; refresh me with apples, for sick with love {am} I! | Strengthen and refresh me with fruit, because the way you love me makes me feel lovesick. The woman speaking to herself |
The young woman wants raisin cakes to sustain her and apples to refresh her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His left hand {is} under my head, and his right hand embraces me. | The man whom I love has placed his left arm under my head, and he holds me close with his right arm. The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
His left hand is under her head and his right hand embraces her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the female gazelles or the does of the field, do not awaken nor stir love until it desires. | You young women of Jerusalem, I want you to solemnly promise me, while the female gazelles and female deer are listening, that you will not cause people to love romantically until it is the right time. The woman speaking to herself |
The young woman wants the young women to avoid awakening love before the right time comes.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The voice of my beloved! Behold, this one is coming, leaping over the mountains, jumping over the hills. | Listen! Look! The man whom I love is coming. It is as though he is leaping over the mountains and skipping over the hills, |
The young woman hears the voice of her beloved.
He is leaping over the mountains and jumping over the hills.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved is being like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, this one is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattices. | like a gazelle or a young male deer. Look! There he is! He is standing outside the wall of our house, peering in through the window, and looking intently through the wooden strips inside the window frame. |
She said her beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved answered and said to me, “Get up, my darling, my beauty, and come, | The man whom I love spoke to me and said, “My dear one, get up; my beautiful one, come with me! |
He wanted her to get up and come with him.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| for, behold, the winter has gone; the rain has passed; it went away. | Look, the cold season has ended; the rain has stopped. |
He said the winter was gone and the rain had passed.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The blossoms have appeared in the land; the time of the song has arrived, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. | The flowers are blooming throughout the country. It is now time to sing; we hear the doves cooing throughout our land. |
Flower blossoms have appeared in the land.
It is time for song.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The fig tree ripens its green figs, and the vines {are in} blossom; they give off a smell. Get up, come, my darling, my beauty, and come.” | There are new figs on the fig trees, and there are blossoms on the grapevines, and their fragrance fills the air. My dear one, get up; my beautiful one, come with me! |
The green fig tree ripens and the vines blossom.
He wants her to arise and come with him.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the cliff, show me your appearance, make me hear your voice, for your voice {is} sweet, and your appearance {is} lovely. | You are like a dove that is hiding far from me in an opening in the rocky cliff. Allow me to see your form, and allow me to hear your voice, because your voice sounds sweet, and your form is comely.” The woman speaking to the man she loves |
Her beloved calls her his dove.
Her beloved wants to see her lovely appearance and hear her sweet voice.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that destroy the vineyards, and our vineyards {are in} blossom. | There are harmful things that are like little foxes that ruin vineyards; do not allow these things to ruin our growing relationship. |
The woman wants him to catch the little foxes that ruin vineyards.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved {belongs} to me and I {belong} to him, the man grazing among the lilies. | You whom I love, you are mine, and I am yours. You have pleasure when you kiss my lips, as a gazelle does when eating among the lilies. |
Her beloved belongs to her.
She belongs to her beloved.
He grazes among the lilies with pleasure.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn; resemble, my beloved, a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether. | You whom I love, come and be like a gazelle or a young male deer on the mountains in Bether, until the evening breeze blows and the sun sets. |
She wants her beloved to turn to her.
She wants her beloved to turn to her until the soft winds of dawn blow and the shadows flee away.
She wants him to be like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| On my bed in the night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him. | At night while I lay on my bed, I searched for the man whom I love. I searched for him, but could not find him. |
The woman was longing for the one whom she loved, but she could not find him.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I will get up now and go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him. | So I said to myself, “I will get up now and walk around the city, through the streets and plazas, to search for the man whom I love.” So I got up and went out to search for him, but I could not find him. |
The woman searched through the streets and squares, but she could not find her beloved.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The guards going about in the city found me: “{Have} you seen him whom my soul loves?” | The city watchmen saw me while they were walking around the city. I asked them, “Have you seen the man whom I love?” |
She asked them, “Have you seen my beloved?”
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Hardly had I passed by them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and I would not let him go until I had brought him to the house of my mother and to the room of the woman who conceived me. | As soon as I walked past them, I found the man whom I love. I clung to him and would not release my hold on him until I brought him to my mother’s house, to the bedroom of my mother who had conceived me. The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
She found the one whom her soul loved just after she passed the watchmen in the city.
She held him and would not let him go until she had brought him into her mother’s house.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the female gazelles or the does of the field, do not awaken nor stir love until it desires. | You young women of Jerusalem, I want you to solemnly promise me, while the female gazelles and female deer are listening, that you will not cause people to love romantically until it is the right time. The woman speaking to herself |
The woman wants the daughters of Jerusalem to promise they would not awaken or stir love before the right time.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Who {is} that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, fragrant smoke of myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of the merchant? | Look! See what is coming up from the dry and uninhabited area. Look at what is stirring up dust like clouds of smoke, and like billows of smoke from burning myrrh and incense, which are from the fragrant powders imported by traveling traders! |
She sees the portable litter of Solomon coming with 60 warriors around it.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Behold—his litter, which {belongs} to Solomon; 60 warriors surround it, from the warriors of Israel. | Look! Solomon has sent his portable royal chair, and it is surrounded by 60 bodyguards chosen from the greatest soldiers in Israel. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| All of them are grasping a sword, studied {in} war. Each one {has} his sword at his thigh, against the terrors in the nights. | They all have swords, and they all know how to use them. Each one has his sword strapped to his side and is prepared to defend against dangers that might occur during the night. |
The warriors were good with the sword and in warfare.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| He made for himself a palanquin, King Solomon, from the trees of Lebanon. | King Solomon commanded his servants to make that royal portable chair for him; it was made with wood from Lebanon. |
King Solomon made a sedan chair from wood from Lebanon.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| He made its posts {out of} silver; its back, gold; its seat, purple cloth. Its interior was fitted {with} love from the daughters of Jerusalem. | The canopy that covered it was held up by posts made with silver, and the base of the palanquin was made with gold. The seat was covered with purple cloth, and the inside of the palanquin was lovingly decorated by the women of Jerusalem. |
The chair had posts of silver, a back of gold, a seat of purple cloth, and was decorated and made comfortable with love from the daughters of Jerusalem.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Go out and look, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the joy of his heart. | You young women of Jerusalem, come and look at King Solomon wearing the headdress that his mother put on his head on the day when he was married, on the day when he was very happy. |
She wants them to look at King Solomon.
He wore a crown with which his mother crowned him on his marriage day.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Behold you! {You are} beautiful, my darling. Behold you! {You are} beautiful. Your eyes {are} doves from behind your veil. Your hair {is} like a flock of goats that hop down from {the} slopes of Gilead. | My dear one, you are beautiful, you are very beautiful! Beneath your veil, your eyes are as gentle and as beautiful as doves. Your long black hair moves from side to side like a flock of black goats moving down the slopes of Mount Gilead. |
Her eyes are as doves behind her veil.
Her hair is like a flock of goats hopping down Mount Gilead.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your teeth {are} like a flock of shorn {sheep} that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and there is not among them one which is bereaved. | Your teeth are very white, white like a flock of sheep whose wool people have just cut off and which have just come up from washing in a stream. You have all of your teeth on both sides of your mouth; none of them is missing. |
Her teeth are like a flock of newly shorn and washed sheep, two of each and none missing.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Like a thread of scarlet {are} your lips, and your mouth {is} lovely. Like a slice of pomegranate {are} your cheeks from behind your veil. | Your lips are the color of bright red thread, and your mouth is beautiful. Beneath your veil, your cheeks are round and rosy like the halves of a pomegranate. |
He says that her lips are like a thread of scarlet and that her mouth is lovely.
He describes her cheeks as being like pomegranate halves behind her veil.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Like the tower of David {is} your neck, built of layers— a thousand shields hanging on it, all the shields of the warriors. | Your long neck is beautiful like the tower of King David that was built using layers of stone. The beauty of your jeweled neck is like a thousand shields hanging on the walls of a tower; like the beauty of a thousand warrior’s shields hanging from a tower. |
He describes her neck as the tower of David built in rows of stone with a thousand soldiers’ shields hanging on it.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your two breasts {are} like two fawns, twins of a female gazelle, the ones pasturing among the lilies. | Your two breasts are as beautiful as two young twin gazelles that eat grass among lilies. |
He describes her two breasts as two fawns, twins of a gazelle, grazing among the lilies.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I myself will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. | Until the evening breeze blows and the sun sets, I will go to your breasts because they are like two hills that smell like pleasant spices. |
He says he will go to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| All of you {is} beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you. | My dear one, you are completely beautiful; your body is perfectly formed and has no blemish! |
She is beautiful in every way.
His beautiful love does not have any blemish.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| {Come} with me from Lebanon, {my} bride; come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the hiding places of lions, from the mountains of leopards. | Come back to me, my bride. It is as though you are in Lebanon far away, where I cannot reach you. Come back to me. It is as though you are inaccessible on the top of Mount Hermon or the nearby peaks, where I cannot go to you. Come from the mountains, where the lions have their dens and where the leopards live. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| You have enchanted my heart, my sister, {my} bride; you have enchanted my heart with one {look} from your eyes, with one jewel from your necklace. | You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, by only once quickly looking at me with your eyes, and by one strand of jewels in your necklace, you have obtained my full affection. |
Solomon calls her his sister.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| How your love is beautiful, my sister, {my} bride! How your love {is} better than wine and the smell of your oils {is better} than all spices! | You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, your love for me is delightful! It is more delightful than wine! The fragrance of your perfume is more pleasing than any spice! |
Solomon says her love is better than wine.
The smell of her perfume is better than any spice.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your lips drip {with} nectar, {my} bride; honey and milk {are} under your tongue and the smell of your garments {is} like the smell of Lebanon. | When you kiss me, my bride, it is as delightful as eating honey. Your kisses are as sweet as milk mixed with honey. The aroma of your clothes is like the aroma of cedar trees in Lebanon. |
He says his bride’s lips drip with nectar, and she has honey and milk under her tongue.
Her clothes smell like the fragrance of Lebanon.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| A locked garden {is} my sister, {my} bride, a locked spring, a sealed fountain. | You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, you are like a garden that the owner keeps locked so that other men cannot enter it; you are like a spring or a fountain that is covered so that others may not drink from it. |
Solomon says she is like a garden locked up and a spring that is sealed.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your shoots {are} an orchard of pomegranate trees with delicious fruits, henna with nard, | You are like an orchard of pomegranate trees full of delicious fruit and plenty of plants that produce henna and nard spices, |
He likens her shoots to a grove of pomegranate trees with choice fruit and plants and all the finest spices.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices, | and saffron and calamus and cinnamon and many other kinds of incense, myrrh and aloes, and many other fine spices. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon. | You are like a spring in a garden, like a well of fresh-flowing water, and like streams that flow down from the mountains of Lebanon. The woman speaking to the man she loves |
He describes her as a garden spring, a well of fresh water, and streams flowing down from Lebanon.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Awake, north wind, and come, south wind; blow on my garden and let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its delicious fruit. | I want the north wind and the south wind to come and blow on me, so that the fragrance of my body will spread through the air and attract the man I love. You whom I love, I am like your garden. I want you to come and enjoy my body, like someone comes into a garden and enjoys eating the delicious fruit that grows there. |
She wants the north and south winds to blow on her garden so that its spices would give off their fragrance.
She wants her beloved to come into his garden and to eat some of its choice fruit.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I have come to my garden, my sister, {my} bride; I have plucked my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends; drink, and be drunk, beloved ones. | You who are as dear to me as a sister, my bride, I am ready to go away with you now and enjoy making love with you. It will be delightful, delightful like when I gather my myrrh with my other spices, as wonderful as eating my honey and honeycomb, and as enjoyable as drinking my wine with milk. The women of Jerusalem speaking to the newly married couple Friends, enjoy making love; fully enjoy all that you do with each other. The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
Solomon has come into his garden.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {am} asleep, but my heart {is} awake. A sound—my beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one, because my head {is} full of dew, my hair {is full of} the drops of the night.” | I was asleep, and I had a dream. In it I heard the man I love knocking at the door. He said, “You who are as dear to me as a sister, my dear one, you who are like a dove, my flawless one. Open the door for me because my hair is wet from the dew, from the mist that has fallen during the night.” |
She is dreaming of her beloved’s knocking and talking.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| “I have taken off my robe; how will I put it on? I have washed my feet; how could I get them dirty?” | But I had already taken my robe off; I did not want to put it on again to open the door. I had already washed my feet; so I did not want them to get dirty again by answering the door. |
She has already taken off her robe and washed her feet.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved stretched out his hand through the hole and my belly roared concerning him. | The man I love put his hand through the opening in the door, and I was thrilled in my inner being that he was there. |
Solomon had put his hand through the opening of the door latch.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I got myself up to open to my beloved and my hands dripped {with} myrrh and my fingers {dripped with} flowing myrrh on the hands of the bolt. | I got up to open the door for the man I love, but first I put much myrrh on my hands. The liquid myrrh was dripping from my fingers while I unlatched the bolt. |
Her hands were dripping with moist myrrh.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I myself opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul went out because he departed. I searched for him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me. | I opened the door for the man I love, but he had left. He had turned away and was gone! I greatly despaired because he was not there. I searched for him, but I could not find him. I called out for him, but he did not answer. |
She found that her beloved had turned and gone, so her heart sank and she became sad.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The guards going about in the city found me. They beat me and wounded me; they lifted my shawl from me, the guards of the walls. | The city watchmen saw me while they were walking around the city. They struck me and bruised me because they thought I was a prostitute; those watchmen who were guarding the city walls took my robe that was on me. |
They struck and wounded her and took away her veil.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, what will you declare to him? {Declare to him} that sick {with} love {am} I. | You young women of Jerusalem, if you see the man I love, what will you tell him? I want you to solemnly promise me that if you see him, you will tell him that the way he loves me makes me feel lovesick. The women of Jerusalem speaking to the woman |
She asks the women of Jerusalem to promise that if they find her beloved they will tell him she is lovesick for him.
The young woman’s beloved makes her feel sick with love.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| What {is} your beloved more than {another} beloved, most beautiful among women? What {is} your beloved more than {another} beloved, that thus you adjure us? | You who are the most beautiful of all the women, why do you think that the man you love is better than other men? In what way is he better than other men that would cause you to want us to solemnly promise that we will tell him that? The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
They ask her how and why her beloved is better than another beloved.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved {is} shimmering and red, distinguished among ten thousand. | It is because the man I love is handsome and healthy, outstanding among an uncountable number of other men. |
She describes him as radiant, ruddy, and outstanding.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His head {is} gold, refined gold; his hairs {are} wavy, black like the raven. | His face is beautiful and gleams like gold; he is as precious as purest gold. His hair is wavy and as black as a raven. |
She describes his head as pure gold and his hair as curly and black.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His eyes {are} like doves beside stream beds of water, bathing in milk, sitting beside the pools. | His eyes are as gentle and beautiful as doves which are beside streams. His eyes are as white as white doves which are sitting beside pools of water. |
She describes his eyes like doves washed in milk.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His cheeks {are} like a bed of spices, towers of herbal spices. His lips {are} lilies, dripping {with} flowing myrrh. | His cheeks are like a garden where spices grow and like towers where spices are kept. His lips are like lilies that have myrrh dripping from them. |
She describes his cheeks like spice gardens and his lips like myrrh-soaked lilies.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His arms {are} rods of gold mounted with topaz; his belly {is} a plate of ivory covered {with} sapphires. | His arms are like round gold rods, that are decorated with precious stones. His abdomen is like ivory that is decorated with sapphires. |
She describes his arms as rods of gold with topaz and his abdomen as a plate of ivory covered with sapphires.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His thighs {are} pillars of alabaster set on bases of refined gold; his appearance {is} like Lebanon, {as} choice as the cedars. | His legs are like alabaster columns that are set in bases made of pure gold. He is majestic, like the mountains of Lebanon. He is tall and strong and outstanding like the cedar trees that grow there. |
She describes his legs as marble pillars with gold bases and his appearance like Lebanon, as special as the cedars.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His mouth {is} most sweet, and all of him {is} most desirable. This {is} my beloved, and this {is} my friend, daughters of Jerusalem. | His kisses are very sweet; he is completely attractive. You young women of Jerusalem, this is what the man I love, who is my friend, is like, and this is why he is better than all other men. |
She describes his mouth as most sweet and that Solomon is most desirable.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Where did he go, your beloved, most beautiful woman among women? Where did he turn, your beloved, and let us seek him with you? | You who are the most beautiful of the women, where has the man you love gone? Tell us which direction he went, and we will go with you to search for him. The woman speaking to herself |
They ask her where her beloved has gone and whether they can go with her to look for him.
The young women wanted to seek for the young woman’s beloved.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My beloved went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, in order to graze in the gardens and in order to glean lilies. | The man who I love has come to me. I am like his garden where pleasant spices grow. He has come to enjoy my body as a gazelle enjoys grazing in a garden and as a person enjoys picking lilies. |
The young woman said he was in his spice gardens to graze in the garden and to gather lilies.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {belong} to my beloved, and my beloved {belongs} to me; he grazes among the lilies. | I belong to the man I love, and he belongs to me. He feels pleasure when he is near me, as a gazelle does when eating among lilies. The man speaking |
The young woman and her lover belong to each other.
The young woman’s lover grazes among the lilies.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| You {are} beautiful, my darling, like Tirzah, lovely like Jerusalem, awe-inspiring like bannered armies. | My dear one, you are beautiful. You are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah and as lovely as the city of Jerusalem. You are as exciting and majestic to look at as an army with banners. |
He describes her as two cities, Tirzah and Jerusalem.
He feels that she is completely beautiful and lovely, but also awe-inspiring.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Turn your eyes away from me, because they excite me. Your hair {is} like a flock of goats that hop down from Gilead. | Stop looking at me like that, because your eyes excite me very much. Your long black hair moves from side to side like a flock of black goats moving down the slopes of Mount Gilead. |
The woman’s lover wants her to turn her eyes away from him because her eyes excite him.
He describes her hair as a flock of goats descending the slopes of Mount Gilead.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your teeth {are} like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and there is not among them one which is bereaved. | Your teeth are very white, white like a flock of sheep that has just come up from being washed in a stream. You have all of your teeth on both sides of your mouth; none of them is missing. |
He describes her teeth as a flock of ewes, each with twins and none missing, coming up from the washing place.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Like a slice of a pomegranate {are} your cheeks from behind your veil. | Beneath your veil, your cheeks are round and rosy like the halves of a pomegranate. |
Her lover describes her cheeks as pomegranate halves behind her veil.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Sixty {are} they, queens, and eighty concubines, and marriageable women without number. | Even if a king had 60 queens and 80 concubines and more young women in his court than anyone can count, |
He says there may be 60 queens, 80 concubines, and young women without number.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| One {is} she, my dove; my perfect one—one {is} she to her mother; pure {is} she to the woman who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed; the queens and the concubines—they praised her: | none of them would be as special as she is. She is like a dove; she is flawless. Her mother considers her to be very special; she is her mother’s favorite child. When the young women of the king’s court see her, they say that she is fortunate, and the queens and concubines praise her. |
The woman’s lover describes her as pure, the only one, and the special and favorite daughter of her mother.
The queens and concubines called her blessed, and they praised her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| “Who {is} that, the woman who looks down like {the} dawn, beautiful like the moon, pure like the sun, awe-inspiring like bannered armies?” | Look at this woman who appears like the dawn, who is as beautiful to look at as the moon, who is radiant like the sun, who is as exciting and majestic to look at as an army with banners! |
The woman’s lover describes her like the dawn, the moon, the sun, and as completely awesome.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| To the garden of {the} nut tree I went down, to look at the green shoots of the valley, to see—had the vine budded? Had the pomegranates bloomed? | I went down to the walnut tree orchard to look at the new plants that were growing in the valley. I wanted to see if the grapevines had budded and if the pomegranate trees were blooming. |
The woman’s lover went into the grove of nut trees to see if the vines had budded and the pomegranates were in bloom.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I did not know—my soul put me {among} the chariots of my people, a noble. | All of a sudden I imagined that I was among the chariots of my noble people. The women of Jerusalem speaking |
The woman’s lover felt as though he were riding in the chariot of a prince.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Return, return, Shulammite, return, return and let us look at you. Why do you look at the Shulammite like the dance of two armies? | Come back to us, beautiful woman from Shulam, come back to us, in order that we may see you! The man speaking Why do you want to look at the beautiful woman from Shulam, as if she were a dancer who dances to entertain armies? |
The woman’s lover wanted her to turn back to him.
The woman’s lover wants her to turn to him so that he might gaze on her.
He asks why they look at her as if mesmerized by a dancer.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| How your feet are beautiful in sandals, daughter of a noble! The curves of your thighs {are} like ornaments, the work of the hands of a craftsman. | You who are the daughter of a prince, have very lovely feet in your sandals! Your curved hips are like jewels that have been made by a man who shapes jewels very well. |
He describes her feet in her sandals as beautiful and the curves of her thighs like the work of a craftsman.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your navel {is} the rounded bowl— that never lacks spiced wine. Your belly {is} a heap of wheat encircled with the lilies. | Your navel is like a round bowl that is always full of wine mixed with spices. Your belly is like a pile of wheat with lilies growing around it. |
Solomon describes his love’s navel as a round bowl which never lacks spiced wine and her belly as a mound of wheat surrounded with lilies.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your two breasts {are} like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. | Your breasts are as delicate as two young twin gazelles. |
Solomon describes her two breasts like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your neck {is} like a tower of ivory. Your eyes {are} pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose {is} like the tower of Lebanon, looking {to the} face of Damascus. | Your neck is long and beautiful, like a tower made of ivory. Your eyes sparkle like the pools of water in the city of Heshbon, near the Bath Rabbim gate. Your nose is beautiful like the tower in Lebanon that faces Damascus. |
Solomon describes her neck as an ivory tower, her eyes like a pool, and her nose like the tower of Lebanon.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Your head on you {is} like Carmel, and the loose hair of your head {is} like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses. | Your head is majestic like Mount Carmel. Your long hair is shiny and black; it is as though I, your king, am captured by your tresses. |
Solomon describes her head like Mount Carmel and her hair like purple, captivating him.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| How you are beautiful and how you are lovely— love with delights! | You are very beautiful and very lovely! Loving you is very delightful! |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| This is your height—it is like a palm tree, and your breasts {like its} clusters. | You are tall like a palm tree, and your breasts are full and round like date clusters that hang from palm trees. |
He describes her height as a date palm tree and her breasts as date clusters.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I said, “I will go up {the} palm tree; I will grab hold of its fruit stalks.” And, please, let your breasts be like the clusters of the vine, and {let the} smell of your nose {be} like apples, | I said to myself, “I will climb that palm tree and take hold of those clusters of dates.” I want your breasts to be like sweet bunches of grapes that I can enjoy; I want your breath to be like the sweet fragrance of apples. |
He also wants his lover’s breasts to be like date clusters and her breath to be sweet like dates and the smell of an apple.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| and {let} your mouth {be} like the best wine. Going down for my beloved smoothly, gliding over the lips of those who sleep. | I want your kisses to be like very good wine. The woman speaking to the man she loves When I kiss you, the man whom I love, I want my kisses to be as if you are freely drinking wine, and as if wine is flowing over our lips as we sleep together. |
He wants her mouth to be like the best wine.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {belong} to my beloved and his longing {is} for me. | I belong to the man I love, and he desires me. |
The young woman belongs to her beloved, and her beloved desires her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Come, my beloved, let us go out {to} the fields; let us spend the night in the villages. | You whom I love, come with me, and let us go to the countryside, and sleep in one of the villages. |
She wants him to go into the countryside to spend the night in the villages.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Let us go early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine has budded, {if} the blossoms have opened, {if} the pomegranates have bloomed. There I will give my love to you. | And let us go early to the vineyards to see if the grapevines have budded and if there are blossoms on them that have opened, and to see if the pomegranate trees are blooming, and there I will have sexual relations with you. |
She wants him to rise early to see if the vines in the vineyards have budded and if the pomegranates have begun blooming.
She says she will give him her love.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The mandrakes give off a scent, and over our doors {are} all choice fruits, new ones and also old ones. My beloved, I have stored {these} up for you. | The mandrake plants are producing a fragrant scent, and the pleasures we will experience as we express our love for each other will be like choice fruits that have been stored, new ones and old ones. You whom I love, I have reserved my love for you as if I were storing choice fruit. |
She says the mandrakes would give off their fragrance.
She says that at the door where they were staying there were all sorts of choice fruits, new and old, that she had stored up for him.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Who will give you like a brother to me, who nursed at the breasts of my mother? If I found you outside, I would kiss you. Yes, they would not despise me. | I wish that you were like my brother, my own brother, who nursed from my mother’s breasts when he was a baby. Because then, whenever I met you outside the house, I could kiss you, and no one would criticize me. |
She wishes he were like her brother so that she could kiss her lover at any time and no one would despise her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I would lead you; I would bring you to the house of my mother, she {who} taught me. I would make you drink from the wine of spice, from the juice of my pomegranate. | I would like to bring you to my mother’s house, to where my mother, who taught me so many things, lives. I would like to take you to my mother’s house so I could have sexual relations with you there. Having sexual relations with you would be as if I were giving you spiced wine to drink, as if I were giving you sweet pomegranate wine. |
She would have liked to bring him to her mother’s house.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| His left hand {is} under my head and his right hand embraces me. | The man I love has placed his left arm under my head and he holds me close with his right arm. The woman speaking to the women of Jerusalem |
His left hand was holding her head and his right hand was embracing her.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not awaken and do not stir love until it desires. | You young women of Jerusalem, I want you to solemnly promise me, that you will not cause people to love romantically until it is the right time. The women of Jerusalem speaking |
The woman wants Jerusalem’s women to promise that they would not stir up love before its proper time.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Who {is} that coming up from the wilderness, leaning against her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in labor {with} you; there she was in labor; she gave birth {to} you. | Look at this woman who is coming up from the wilderness, the woman who is leaning on the man she loves! The young woman speaking to the man she loves I woke you up when you were under the apple tree at the place where your mother gave birth to you, the place where you were born. |
They ask who is coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved.
She told him that his mother had conceived and given birth to him under the apple tree.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Place me like the seal on your heart, like the seal on your arm, because strong like death {is} love; unyielding like Sheol {is} zeal. Its flashes {are} flashes of fire, the flame of Yah. | Keep me close to you, like a seal that rests against your chest as it hangs down from its cord, or like a seal worn on your bracelet. The strength with which I love you is as powerful as the strength of death; it is as strong as the grave. It is as though our love for each other bursts into flames, and as though our love is the lightning that Yahweh creates. |
She wants him to set her as a seal over his heart, because love is as strong as death, and jealousy flashes like a hot flame.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Many waters are not able to quench {this} love and rivers will not drown it. If a man would give all {the} wealth of his house in exchange for love, they would utterly despise it. | We love each other so deeply, that how we love each other can be compared to a strong fire that no river or flood can put out. If a man tried to cause a woman to love him by saying he would give her everything that he owns, she would refuse. The young woman’s brothers speaking among themselves |
Floods of water could not put out the fire of love.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| A sister {belongs} to us—a little one— and breasts there are not for her. What will we do for our sister on the day when it is spoken for her? | We have a young sister, and her breasts are not large yet. What should we do for her at the time that we promise some young man that he can marry her? |
They said that her breasts had not yet grown and that they wondered what they would do for her when she is promised in marriage.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| If she {is} a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver. And if she {is} a door, we will enclose over her boards of cedar. | We will protect her virginity, as if we were soldiers building a battlement of silver to protect a wall. We will protect her virginity, like we would protect a door from intruders by covering it with boards made of cedar wood. The woman speaking |
If she were a wall, they would build a tower of silver on her.
If she were a door, they would cover her with boards of cedar.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| I {was} a wall and my breasts {are} like towers; then I was, in his eyes, like a person who finds peace. | Like a wall that allows no one to enter, I have remained a virgin and let no man come into me; but now my breasts are large like towers. So I am delightful to my beloved. |
She described herself as a wall with breasts large like towers, and completely mature.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| {There} was a vineyard for Solomon in Baal Hamon. He gave the vineyard to keepers. Each person brought in exchange for its fruit a thousand {pieces of} silver. | King Solomon had a vineyard at a place called Baal Hamon, and he rented it to people for them to farm it. He required each one to pay him one thousand pieces of silver each year for the grapes that they harvested. |
Solomon leased his vineyard to those who would take care of it.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| My vineyard that {belongs} to me {is} to my face. The thousand {belong} to you, Solomon, and the two hundred {belong} to the people who {are} keepers of its fruit. | But my body is like my own vineyard, which is mine to give to the man whom I choose. Solomon can keep the one thousand pieces of silver that he receives from renting his vineyard, and the farmers who take care of it for him can keep the two hundred pieces of silver he pays them. The man speaking to the woman he loves |
She said the 1000 shekels that it brought belonged to Solomon and that those who maintained it would get 200 shekels.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| {You} who reside in the gardens; companions are listening intently for your voice— let me hear it. | You, the woman I love, who are staying in the gardens, my friends are eagerly listening so that they can hear you speak; speak to me! The young woman speaking to the man she loves |
He said that his friends, as well as he, wanted to be the ones to hear her voice.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Flee, my beloved, and resemble a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. | You whom I love, come to me quickly! Run to me like a gazelle or a young male deer runs across mountains where spices grow. |
She wants her beloved to hurry and to be like a deer.