Text: Song of Songs 7:1-13 (NRSV)

1 How graceful are your feet in sandals,

O queenly maiden!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.

2Your navel is a rounded bowl;

may it never lack mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

overlooking Damascus.

5 Your head crowns you like Carmel,

and your flowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.

6 How fair and pleasant you are,

O loved one, delectable maiden!

7You are stately as a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its branches.”

O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

9and your kisses like the best wine

that goes down smoothly,

gliding over lips and teeth.

10 I am my beloved’s,

and his desire is for me.

11Come, my beloved,

let us go forth into the fields

and lodge in the villages;

12 let us go out early to the vineyards;

let us see whether the vines have budded,

whether the grape blossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance,

and over our doors are all choice fruits,

new as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.