Song of Solomon 5:1–16

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 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

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 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.

⁷The 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

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 among^q ten thousand.

¹¹His head is gold, refined gold;

his locks are wavy, black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves beside springs^r 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 rods^uv of gold engraved with^w jewels;

his belly^x 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 mouth^b is sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved;

this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.^c