Song of Solomon 5:1–7:1
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- CSB Christian Standard Bible
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- GW GOD’S WORD Translation
- GNB Good News Translation
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- NASB95 New American Standard Bible (1995)
- NCV New Century Version
- NIrV New International Reader’s Version (1998)
- NIV New International Version (2011)
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- RSVCE The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition
- YLT Young’s Literal Translation
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Traditional Chinese
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
The Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding
2I was asleep butb 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
3I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?e
I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?f
4My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
and my inmost yearned for him.
5I myself arose to open to my beloved;
my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
upon the handles of the bolt.
6I opened myself to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone;g
my heart sankh when he turned away.i
I sought him, but I did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
7The sentinels making rounds in the city found me;
they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloakj away from me—
those sentinels on the walls!k
Adjuration Refrain
8I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,l
if you find my beloved, what will you tell him?
Tell him that I am lovesick!m
The Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved
9How 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?
10My beloved is radiant and ruddy,p
distinguished amongq ten thousand.
11His head is gold, refined gold;
his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12His eyes are like doves beside springsr of water,
bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels.st
13His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances;
his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
14His arms are rodsuv of gold engraved withw jewels;
his bellyx is polished ivory covered with sapphires.y
15His legs are columns of alabaster,z set on bases of gold;
his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.a
16His mouthb is sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.c
6Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned
that we may seek him with you?
2My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the garden bed of the spice,
to pasture his flock and to gather lilies in the garden.
Mutual Possession Refrain
3I belong to my beloved and my beloved belongs to me;a
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
Solomon’s Praise of His Beloved
4You are beautiful, my beloved, as Tirzah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
overwhelming as an army with banners.b
5Turn away your eyes from before me,
for they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of the goats
that moves down from Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of the ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of them bearing twins,
and there is none bereaved among them.
7Your cheeks behindc your veil
are like halves of a pomegranate.
The Maiden’s Beauty Is Without Peer
8Sixty queens there are, eighty concubines,
and maidens beyond number.
my perfect, she is the only one;fg
she is the favorite ofhi her mother who bore her.
Maidens see her and consider her fortunate;j
queens and concubines praise her:
10“Who is this that looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon,
overwhelming as an army with banners?”m
The Journey to the Valley
11I went down to the orchard of the walnut trees
to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines have sprouted,
whether the pomegranates have blossomed.
12I did not know my heartn set me
in a chariot of my princely people.o
13p Turn, turn,q O Shulammite!r
Turn, turns so that we may look upon you!
Why do you look upon the Shulammite
as at a dance of the two armies?
Solomon’s Praise of His Dancing Maiden
7How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O royal princess!a
The curves of your thighsb are like jewels,c
the work of the hands of a craftsman.
Footnotes
- aOr “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”
- bOr “and”
- cOr “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
- dLiterally “my locks with drops of night”
- eLiterally “How will I put it on?”
- fLiterally “How will I soil them?”
- gOr “my beloved had left; he was gone”
- hOr “my soul left”
- iOr “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
- jOr “mantle”
- kLiterally “the sentinels of the walls”
- lLiterally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
- mLiterally “sick with love”
- nLiterally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- oLiterally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- pLiterally “red”
- qLiterally “more than”
- rOr “streams”
- sLiterally “dwelling in a setting”
- tOr “seated at a suitable mounting”
- uLiterally “cylinders”
- vOr “rings”
- wLiterally “filled with”
- xOr “body”
- yOr “works of ivory set with sapphire”
- zOr “marble”
- aLiterally “the cedars”
- bOr “his palate”
- cLiterally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
- aLiterally “I am for my beloved and my beloved for me”
- bLiterally “terrible as the bannered ones”
- cLiterally “from behind”
- dLiterally “she is one”
- eThe term “one” functions here as an adjective of quality: “unique, singular, the only one”
- fLiterally “she is one”
- gOr “the only daughter of her mother.” Although the latter option is permissible, the term is used elsewhere of the heir as the favored child (e.g., Gen 22:2; Prov 4:3). This nuance is supported by the parallel term “favorite”
- hOr “she is the pure one.” Since there are two Hebrew terms spelled the same way, some relate this to the adjective that means “pure.” Others relate it to the verb that means “to choose, select.” The parallelism favors the latter
- iLiterally “the favorite for”
- jOr “call her happy” or “call her blessed” or “bless her”
- kLiterally “pure as the glow”
- lOr “bright as the heat of the sun.” The Hebrew term “glow” poetically refers to the bright rays of the sun (Psa 19:7; Isa 24:23; 30:26)
- mLiterally “terrible as the bannered ones”
- nLiterally “soul”
- oOr “Before I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib” (KJV, ASV) or “Before I knew it, my desire set me mid the chariots of Ammi-nadib” (JPS) or “Before I was aware, my soul set me over the chariots of my noble people” (NASB) or “Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people” (NIV) or “… among the chariots of Amminadab” (NIV margin) or “… among the chariots of the people of the prince” (NIV margin)
- pSong of Songs 6:13–7:13 in the English Bible is 7:1–14 in the Hebrew Bible
- qOr “Return, return …!”
- rOr “O perfect one,” “O peaceful one,” “O bride.” Many interpreters take this moniker as suggesting the maiden was from the village of Shulem (alternately called Shunem)
- sOr “Return, return …!”
- aOr “O daughter of leader”
- bLiterally “thigh”
- cLiterally “ornaments”
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