His Desire Is for Me
The man praises her from her sandaled feet to her hair, openly delighting in her. She does not deflect it. She claims the desire as mutual and hers, then leads him out to the vineyards and villages, where she has stored up fruit for him.
7 1How beautiful are your feet in sandals, noble daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a master craftsman's hands. 2Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks blended wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies. 3Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4Your 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 toward Damascus. 5Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing hair is like purple; a king is held captive in its tresses. 6How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, with all your delights! 7Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts like its clusters. 8I said, "I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit." May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the fragrance of your breath like apples, 9and your mouth like the best wine. It flows smoothly for my beloved, gliding gently over lips and teeth.
10I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me. 11Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and spend the night in the villages. 12Let us go early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. 13The mandrakes give off their fragrance, and over our doors are all the finest fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved. a a v13 Mandrakes were fragrant plants widely believed in the ancient world to stir romantic desire and enhance fertility.
