5 I have come to my garden, my sister bride,
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey,
I have drunk my wine with my milk!
Eat, O friends! Drink and become drunk with love![a]
Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding
2 I was asleep but[b] my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved knocking![c]
“Open to me, my sister, my beloved,
my dove, my perfect one!
For my head is full of dew,
my hair drenched from the moist night air.”[d]
3 I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?[e]
I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?[f]
4 My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
and my inmost yearned for him.
5 I myself arose to open to my beloved;
my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
upon the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened myself to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone;[g]
my heart sank[h] when he turned away.[i]
I sought him, but I did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
7 The sentinels making rounds in the city found me;
they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloak[j] away from me—
those sentinels on the walls![k]
Adjuration Refrain
8 I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,[l]
if you find my beloved, what will you tell him?
Tell him that I am lovesick![m]
Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved
9 How is your beloved better than another lover,[n]
O most beautiful among women?
How is your beloved better than another lover, [o]
that you adjure us thus?
10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy,[p]
distinguished among[q] ten thousand.
11 His head is gold, refined gold;
his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside springs[r] of water,
bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels.[s][t]
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances;
his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods[u][v] of gold engraved with[w] jewels;
his belly[x] is polished ivory covered with sapphires.[y]
15 His legs are columns of alabaster,[z] set on bases of gold;
his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.[aa]
16 His mouth[ab] is sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.[ac]
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 5:1 Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “and”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Literally “my locks with drops of night”
- Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I put it on?”
- Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I soil them?”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my soul left”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “when he was speaking.” Translations equivocate on how to translate this verb, since there are two terms in Hebrew spelled identically: “to speak” and “to turn aside” (HALOT 1:210). The context suggests the latter
- Song of Solomon 5:7 Or “mantle”
- Song of Solomon 5:7 Literally “the sentinels of the walls”
- Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
- Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “sick with love”
- Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “red”
- Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “more than”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “streams”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Literally “dwelling in a setting”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “seated at a suitable mounting”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “cylinders”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “rings”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “filled with”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “body”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”
- Song of Solomon 5:15 Or “marble”
- Song of Solomon 5:15 Literally “the cedars”
- Song of Solomon 5:16 Or “his palate”
- Song of Solomon 5:16 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”