Song of Songs — Chapter 6
“Whither has your beloved gone,O fairest of women?Whither has your beloved turned?Let us seek him with you.”
My beloved has gone down to his garden,To the beds of spices,To browse in the gardensAnd to pick lilies.
I am my beloved’sAnd my beloved is mine;He browses among the lilies.
You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,Comely as Jerusalem,Awesome as bannered hosts.aAwesome as bannered hosts Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
Turn your eyes away from me,For they overwhelm me!Your hair is like a flock of goatsStreaming down from Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of ewesClimbing up from the washing pool;All of them bear twins,And not one loses her young.
Your brow behind your veil[Gleams] like a pomegranate split open.
There are sixty queens,And eighty concubines,And maidens without number.
Only one is my dove,My perfect one,The only one of her mother,The delight of her who bore her.Young women see and acclaim her;Queens and concubines, and praise her.
Who is she that shines through like the dawn,Beautiful as the moon,Radiant as the sunAwesome as bannered hosts?bAwesome as bannered hosts Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
I went down to the nut groveTo see the budding of the vale;To see if the vines had blossomed,If the pomegranates were in bloom.
cMeaning of verse uncertain. Before I knew it,My desire set meMid the chariots of Ammi-nadib.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Dhammapada 10:1
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”