Stripped me of my mantle.
8I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem!
If you meet my beloved, tell him this:
That I am faint with love.
9How is your beloved better than another,f
O fairest of women?
How is your beloved better than anotherf
That you adjure us so?
10My beloved is clear-skinned and ruddy,
Preeminent among ten thousand.
11His head is finest gold,
His locks are curled
And black as a raven.
12His eyes are like doves
By watercourses,
Bathed in milk,
b-Set by a brimming pool.-b
13His cheeks are like beds of spices,
g-Banks of-g perfume
His lips are like lilies;
They drip flowing myrrh.
14His hands are rods of gold,
Studded with beryl;
His belly a tablet of ivory,
Adorned with sapphires.
15His legs are like marble pillars
Set in sockets of fine gold.
He is majestic as Lebanon,
Stately as the cedars.
16His mouth is delicious
And all of him is delightful.
Such is my beloved,
Such is my darling,
O maidens of Jerusalem!
6
“Whither has your beloved gone,
O fairest of women?
Whither has your beloved turned?
Let us seek him with you.”
2My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of spices,
To browse in the gardens
And to pick lilies.
3I am my beloved’s
And my beloved is mine;
He browses among the lilies.
4You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,
Comely as Jerusalem,
a-Awesome as bannered hosts.-a
5Turn your eyes away from me,
For they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats
Streaming down from Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
Climbing up from the washing pool;
All of them bear twins,
And not one loses her young.
7Your brow behind your veil
[Gleams] like a pomegranate split open.
8There are sixty queens,
And eighty concubines,
And damsels without number.
9Only one is my dove,
My perfect one,
The only one of her mother,
The delight of her who bore her.
Maidens see and acclaim her;
Queens and concubines, and praise her.
10Who is she that shines through like the dawn,
Beautiful as the moon,
Radiant as the sun
a-Awesome as bannered hosts?-a
11I went down to the nut grove
To see the budding of the vale;
To see if the vines had blossomed,
If the pomegranates were in bloom.
12a-Before I knew it,
My desire set me
Mid the chariots of Ammi-nadib.-a
7
Turn back, turn back,
O maid of Shulem!
Turn back, turn back,
That we may gaze upon you.
“Why will you gaze at the Shulammite
Ina the Mahanaim dance?”
2How lovely are your feet in sandals,
O daughter of nobles!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
The work of a master’s hand.
3Your navel is like a round goblet—
Let mixed wine not be lacking!—
Your belly like a heap of wheat
Hedged about with lilies.
4Your breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.
5Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
Your eyes like pools in Heshbon
By the gate of Bath-rabbim,
Your nose like the Lebanon tower
That faces toward Damascus.
6The head upon you is like b-crimson wool,-b
The locks of your head are like purple—
c-A king is held captive in the tresses.-c
7How fair you are, how beautiful!
O Love, with all its rapture!
8Your stately form is like the palm,
Your breasts are like clusters.
9I say: Let me climb the palm,
Let me take hold of its branches;
Let your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
Your breath like the fragrance of apples,
10And your mouth like choicest wine.
“Let it flow to my beloved as new wined
c-Gliding over the lips of sleepers.”-c
11I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.
12Come, my beloved,
Let us go into the open;
Let us lodge e-among the henna shrubs.-e
13Let us go early to the vineyards;
Let us see if the vine has flowered,
If its blossoms have opened,
If the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give my love to you.
14The mandrakes yield their fragrance,
At our doors are all choice fruits;
Both freshly picked and long-stored
Have I kept, my beloved, for you.
8
If only it could be as with a brother,
As if you had nursed at my mother’s breast:
Then I could kiss you
When I met you in the street,
And no one would despise me.
2I would lead you, I would bring you
To the house of my mother,
Of her who taughta me—
I would let you drink of the spiced wine,
Of my pomegranate juice.
3His left hand was under my head,
His right hand caressed me.
4I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem:
Do not wake or rouse
Love until it please!
5Who is she that comes up from the desert,
Leaning upon her beloved?
Under the apple tree I roused you;
It was there your mother conceived you,
There she who bore you conceived you.
6Let me be a seal upon your heart,
Like the seal upon your hand.b
For love is fierce as death,
Passion is mighty as Sheol;
Its darts are darts of fire,
A blazing flame.
7Vast floods cannot quench love,
Nor rivers drown it.
If a man offered all his wealth for love,
He would be laughed to scorn.
8“We have a little sister,
Whose breasts are not yet formed.
What shall we do for our sister
When she is spoken for?
9If she be a wall,
We will build upon it a silver battlement;
If she be a door,
We will panel it in cedar.”
10I am a wall,
My breasts are like towers.
So I became in his eyes
As one who finds favor.
11Solomon had a vineyard
In Baal-hamon.
He had to post guards in the vineyard:
A man would give for its fruit
A thousand pieces of silver.
12I have my very own vineyard:
You may have the thousand, O Solomon,
And the guards of the fruit two hundred!
13O you who linger in the garden,c
A loverc is listening;
Let me hear your voice.
14“Hurry, my beloved,
Swift as a gazelle or a young stag,
To the hills of spices!”
a Or “concerning.”
b-b Heb. “Let him give me of the kisses of his mouth!”
c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d-d Emendation yields “Brimg me, O king, to your chambers.”
e-e Understanding mesharim as related to tirosh; cf. Aramaic merath.
f As a pretext for coming.
a Lit. “crocus.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Or “singing.”
d-d Emendation yields “declines”; cf. Jer. 6.4.
e Septuagint reads “lengthen”; cf. Jer. 6.4.
f Heb. bather of uncertain meaning; 8.14 reads besamim, “spices.”
a I.e., in a dream.
b-b Lit. “The watchmen met me.”
c Cf. Akkadian ahāzu, “to learn.”
d Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
e-e Emendation yields “ebony, / O maidens of Jerusalem!”
a Cf. 6.6; exact nuance of qesuboth uncertain, perhaps “shorn ones.”
b-b Apparently a poetic figure for jewelry; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c See notes at 2.17.
d Cf. Deut. 3.9.
e Emendation yields “lairs”; cf. Nah. 2.13.
f Lit. “sister”; and so frequently below.
g-g Emendation yields “The spring in my garden / Is a well of fresh water.”
a In vv. 2–8 the maiden relates a dream.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Many manuscripts and editions read “within me” (‘alai).
d-d Change of vocalization yields “because of him.”
e See note at 3.3.
f Or “What sort of beloved is your beloved?”
g-g Septuagint vocalizes as participle, “producing.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a With many manuscripts and editions; others read “like.” Meaning of entire line uncertain.
b-b So Ibn Janah and Ibn Ezra, taking karmel as a by-form of karmil: cf. 2 Chron. 2.6, 13; 3.14.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d See note at 1.4 end.
e-e Or “in the villages.”
a Emendation yields “bore”; cf. 6.9; 8.5.
b Lit. “arm.”
c Heb. plural. Meaning of verse uncertain.
Ruth
1 In the days when the chieftainsa ruled, there was a famine in the land; and a man of Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the country of Moab. 2The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the country of Moab and remained there.
3Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, and they lived there about ten years. 5Then those two—Mahlon and Chilion—also died; so the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.
6She started out with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab; for in the country of Moab she had heard that the LORD had taken note of His people and given them food. 7Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living; and they set out on the road back to the land of Judah.
8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Turn back, each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me! 9May the LORD grant that each of you find security in the house of a husband!” And she kissed them farewell. They broke into weeping 10and said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”
11But Naomi replied, “Turn back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Have I any more sons in my body who might be husbands for you? 12Turn back, my daughters, for I am too old to be married. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I were married tonight and I also bore sons, 13should you wait for them to grow up? Should you on their account debar yourselves from marriage? Oh no, my daughters! My lot is far more bitter than yours, for the hand of the LORD has struck out against me.”
14They broke into weeping again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell. But Ruth clung to her. 15So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Go follow your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. b-Thus and more may the LORD do to me-b if anything but death parts me from you.” 18When [Naomi] saw how determined she was to go with her, she ceased to argue with her; 19and the two went on until they reached Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole city buzzed with excitement over them. The women said, “Can this be Naomi?” 20“Do not
