Song of Songs 6

Song of Songs 6
Christian Standard Bible

Young Women
6 Where has your love gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way has he turned?
We will seek him with you.

Woman
2 My love has gone down to his garden,
to beds of spice,
to feed in the gardens
and gather lilies.
3 I am my love’s and my love is mine;
he feeds among the lilies.

Man
4 You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
for they captivate me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
coming up from washing,
each one having a twin,
and not one missing.
7 Behind your veil,
your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.
8 There are sixty queens
and eighty concubines
and young women without number.
9 But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique;
she is the favorite of her mother,
perfect to the one who gave her birth.
Women see her and declare her fortunate;
queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:
10 Who is this who shines like the dawn,
as beautiful as the moon,
bright as the sun,
awe-inspiring as an army with banners?

Woman
11 I came down to the walnut grove
to see the blossoms of the valley,
to see if the vines were budding
and the pomegranates blooming.
12 I didn’t know what was happening to me.
I felt like I was
in a chariot with a nobleman.

Young Women
13 Come back, come back, Shulammite!
Come back, come back, that we may look at you!

Man
How you gaze at the Shulammite,
as you look at the dance of the two camps!

---

All of the Young Women of Jerusalem (the friends of the Woman) offer to help her look for the Man (Solomon).  They say they have no idea where he has gone.  She says in poetic verse that he has gone to seek pleasure for himself--"the garden" is a symbol of something of value and worth (worth protecting) that brings pleasure both to the owner and to those who the owner invites in.  For the woman, this was her virginity that she was keeping safe until marriage.  Solomon was in search of what this was for himself.

He then realizes how much he misses her, and he speaks of her like he is seeing her for the first time though, it seems that the two of them miss each other as she goes out to search for him.  She goes to some of his favorite places hoping he is there.

The young women call for her to come back to town before she too gets lost.  The Shulammite woman is all Solomon can think about.  He is looking for her, and it seems that he will find her as she is looking for him (when we get to the next chapter, I think it will be obvious they are talking to one another and not about one another).  They both thought they had lost each other, and it wasn't until they thought the other was lost that they realized how much the other meant to them (specifically for Solomon) --he had many other wives and concubines and could have just about any other woman that he wanted, but the Shulammite woman was the only one he really wanted.