Song of Solomon 4–5

4How beautiful you are, my love!

How your eyes shine with love behind your veil.

Your hair dances, like a flock of goats

bounding down the hills of Gilead.

²Your teeth are as white as sheep

that have just been shorn and washed.

Not one of them is missing;

they are all perfectly matched.

³Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon;

how lovely they are when you speak.

Your cheeks glow behind your veil.

⁴Your neck is like the tower of David,

round and smooth,^e

with a necklace like a thousand shields hung round it.

⁵Your breasts are like gazelles,

twin deer feeding among lilies.

⁶I will stay on

the hill of myrrh, the hill of incense,

until the morning breezes blow

and the darkness disappears.

⁷How beautiful you are, my love;

how perfect you are!

⁸Come with me from the Lebanon Mountains, my bride;

come with me from Lebanon.

Come down from the top of Mount Amana,

from Mount Senir and Mount Hermon,

where the lions and leopards live.

⁹The look in your eyes, my sweetheart and bride,

and the necklace you are wearing

have stolen my heart.

¹⁰Your love delights me,

my sweetheart and bride.

Your love is better than wine;

your perfume more fragrant than any spice.

¹¹The taste of honey is on your lips, my darling;

your tongue is milk and honey for me.

Your clothing has all the fragrance of Lebanon.

¹²My sweetheart, my bride, is a secret garden,

a walled garden, a private spring;

¹³there the plants flourish.

They grow like an orchard of pomegranate trees

and bear the finest fruits.

There is no lack of henna and nard,

¹⁴of saffron, calamus, and cinnamon,

or incense of every kind.

Myrrh and aloes grow there

with all the most fragrant perfumes.

¹⁵Fountains water the garden,

streams of flowing water,

brooks gushing down from the Lebanon Mountains.

¹⁶Wake up, North Wind.

South Wind, blow on my garden;

fill the air with fragrance.

Let my lover come to his garden

and eat the best of its fruits.

5I have entered my garden,

my sweetheart, my bride.

I am gathering my spices and myrrh;

I am eating my honey and honeycomb;

I am drinking my wine and milk.

The Women

Eat, lovers, and drink

until you are drunk with love!

The Fourth Song

The Man

²While I slept, my heart was awake.

I dreamt my lover knocked at the door.

Let me come in, my darling,

my sweetheart, my dove.

My head is wet with dew,

and my hair is damp from the mist.

³I have already undressed;

why should I get dressed again?

I have washed my feet;

why should I get them dirty again?

⁴My lover put his hand to the door,

and I was thrilled that he was near.

⁵I was ready to let him come in.

My hands were covered with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

as I grasped the handle of the door.

⁶I opened the door for my lover,

but he had already gone.

How I wanted to hear his voice!

I looked for him, but couldn’t find him;

I called to him, but heard no answer.

⁷The watchmen patrolling the city found me;

they struck me and bruised me;

the guards at the city wall tore off my cape.

⁸Promise me, women of Jerusalem,

that if you find my lover,

you will tell him I am weak from passion.

⁹Most beautiful of women,

is your lover different from everyone else?

What is there so wonderful about him

that we should give you our promise?

¹⁰My lover is handsome and strong;

he is one in ten thousand.

¹¹His face is bronzed and smooth;

his hair is wavy,

black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are as beautiful as

doves by a flowing brook, doves washed in milk and standing by the stream.^f

¹³His cheeks are as lovely as a garden

that is full of herbs and spices.

His lips are like lilies,

wet with liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His hands are well formed,

and he wears rings set with gems.

His body is like smooth ivory,^g

with sapphires set in it.

¹⁵His thighs are columns of alabaster

set in sockets of gold.

He is majestic, like the Lebanon Mountains

with their towering cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is sweet to kiss;

everything about him enchants me.

This is what my lover is like,

women of Jerusalem.