Praise of the Woman’s Body

Song of Songs 4:1–7

Hellenistic Period, 4th–2nd Century BCE

1Ah, you are fair, my darling,
Ah, you are fair.
Your eyes are like doves
Behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
Streaming down Mount Gilead.
2Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
Climbing up from the washing pool;
All of them bear twins,
And not one loses her young.
3Your lips are like a crimson thread,
Your mouth is lovely.
Your brow behind your veil
[Gleams] like a pomegranate split open.
4Your neck is like the Tower of David,
Built to hold weapons,
Hung with a thousand shields—
All the quivers of warriors.
5Your breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle,
Browsing among the lilies.
6When the day blows gently
And the shadows flee,
I will betake me to the mount of myrrh,
To the hill of frankincense.
7Every part of you is fair, my darling,
There is no blemish in you.

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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