¹I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; 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, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones!

²I slept, but my heart was awake. The voice of my beloved! he knocketh: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night. ³—I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? — ⁴My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door; And my bowels yearned for him. ⁵I rose up to open to my beloved; And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, Upon the handles of the lock. ⁶I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself; he was gone: My soul went forth when he spoke. I sought him, but I found him not; I called him, but he gave me no answer. ⁷The watchmen that went about the city found me; They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. ⁸I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved, …What will ye tell him? —That I am sick of love.

⁹What is thy beloved more than another beloved, Thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, That thou dost so charge us? ¹⁰My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand. ¹¹His head is as the finest gold; His locks are flowing, black as the raven; ¹²His eyes are like doves by the water-brooks, Washed with milk, fitly set; ¹³His cheeks are as a bed of spices, raised beds of sweet plants; His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. ¹⁴His hands gold rings, set with the chrysolite; His belly is bright ivory, overlaid with sapphires; ¹⁵His legs, pillars of marble, set upon bases of fine gold: His bearing as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars; ¹⁶His mouth is most sweet: Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, yea, this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Read in Logos

Public Domain