Man
5 I have come to my garden—my sister, my bride.
I gather[a] my myrrh with my spices.
I eat my honeycomb with my honey.
I drink my wine with my milk.
Narrator
Eat, friends!
Drink, be intoxicated with caresses
Woman
2 I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My love was knocking!(B)
Man
Open to me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew,
my hair with droplets of the night.
Woman
3 I have taken off my clothing.(C)
How can I put it back on?
I have washed my feet.
How can I get them dirty?
4 My love thrust his hand through the opening,
and my feelings were stirred for him.
5 I rose to open for my love.
My hands dripped with myrrh,(D)
my fingers with flowing myrrh
on the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away.
My heart sank[c] because he had left.[d]
I sought him, but did not find him.(E)
I called him, but he did not answer.
7 The guards who go about the city found me.(F)
They beat and wounded me;
they took my cloak[e] from me—
the guardians of the walls.(G)
8 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you,(H)
if you find my love,
tell him that I am lovesick.(I)
Young Women
9 What makes the one you love better than another,
most beautiful of women?(J)
What makes him better than another,
that you would give us this charge?
Woman
10 My love is fit and strong,[f](K)
notable among ten thousand.(L)
11 His head is purest gold.
His hair is wavy[g](M)
and black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves(N)
beside flowing streams,
washed in milk
and set like jewels.[h]
13 His cheeks(O) are like beds of spice,
mounds of[i] perfume.
His lips are lilies,
dripping with flowing myrrh.(P)
14 His arms[j] are rods of gold
set[k] with beryl.(Q)
His body[l] is an ivory panel
covered with lapis lazuli.(R)
15 His legs are alabaster pillars
set on pedestals of pure gold.
His presence is like Lebanon,(S)
as majestic as the cedars.(T)
16 His mouth is sweetness.
He is absolutely desirable.(U)
This is my love, and this is my friend,
young women of Jerusalem.
Footnotes
- 5:1 Lit pluck
- 5:1 Or Drink your fill, lovers
- 5:6 Lit My soul went out
- 5:6 Or spoken
- 5:7 Or veil, or shawl
- 5:10 Or is radiant and ruddy
- 5:11 Or is like palm leaves; Hb obscure
- 5:12 Lit milk sitting in fullness
- 5:13 LXX, Vg read spice, yielding
- 5:14 Lit hands
- 5:14 Lit filled; Sg 5:2,12
- 5:14 Lit abdomen
Cross references
- 5:1 : Pr 5:19
- 5:2 : Sg 2:8
- 5:3 : Lk 11:7
- 5:5 : Sg 5:13
- 5:6 : Sg 3:1–2
- 5:7 : Sg 3:3
- 5:7 : Sg 8:9–10
- 5:8 : Sg 2:7; 3:5; 8:4
- 5:8 : Sg 2:5
- 5:9 : Sg 1:8; 6:1
- 5:10 : 1Sm 16:12
- 5:10 : Ps 45:2
- 5:11 : Sg 5:2
- 5:12 : Sg 1:15; 4:1
- 5:13 : Sg 1:10
- 5:13 : Sg 5:5
- 5:14 : Ex 28:20; 39:13; Ezk 1:16
- 5:14 : Ex 24:10
- 5:15 : Sg 7:4–5
- 5:15 : 1Kg 4:33
- 5:16 : Sg 4:7