Song of Solomon 6 WBT
Summary: The daughters of Jerusalem ask where the beloved has gone so they may help seek him; the woman answers that he has gone down to his garden to graze among the lilies, reaffirming their mutual belonging (v. 3). He responds with fresh praise, comparing her beauty to Tirzah and Jerusalem and calling her "awesome as an army with banners" (v. 4), repeating earlier images of her hair, teeth, and cheeks, and declaring her unique and unrivaled even among queens and concubines who bless her when they see her. The chapter closes on an enigmatic note of the woman (or the poet) descending to a nut orchard and being caught up among the chariots of a prince's people, a transition into the following chapter's praise scene.
1Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.
2My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
3I [am] my beloved's, and my beloved [is] mine: he feedeth among the lilies.
4Thou [art] beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as [an army] with banners.
5Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair [is] as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.
6Thy teeth [are] as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, of which every one beareth twins, and [there is] not one barren among them.
7As a piece of pomegranate [are] thy temples within thy locks.
8There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
9My dove, my undefiled is [but] one; she [is] the [only] one of her mother, she [is] the choice [one] of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; [yes], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.
10Who [is] she [that] looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, [and] terrible as [an army] with banners?
11I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, [and] to see whether the vine flourished, [and] the pomegranates budded.
12Or ere I was aware, my soul made me [like] the chariots of Amminadib.
13Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.
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