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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

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]
I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?[e]
    I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?[f]
My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
    and my inmost yearned for him.
I myself arose to open to my beloved;
    my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
    upon the handles of the bolt.
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.
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

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

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

  1. Song of Solomon 5:1 Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”
  2. Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “and”
  3. Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
  4. Song of Solomon 5:2 Literally “my locks with drops of night”
  5. Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I put it on?”
  6. Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I soil them?”
  7. Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”
  8. Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my soul left”
  9. 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
  10. Song of Solomon 5:7 Or “mantle”
  11. Song of Solomon 5:7 Literally “the sentinels of the walls”
  12. Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
  13. Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “sick with love”
  14. Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
  15. Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
  16. Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “red”
  17. Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “more than”
  18. Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “streams”
  19. Song of Solomon 5:12 Literally “dwelling in a setting”
  20. Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “seated at a suitable mounting”
  21. Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “cylinders”
  22. Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “rings”
  23. Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “filled with”
  24. Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “body”
  25. Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”
  26. Song of Solomon 5:15 Or “marble”
  27. Song of Solomon 5:15 Literally “the cedars”
  28. Song of Solomon 5:16 Or “his palate”
  29. Song of Solomon 5:16 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”