Song of Solomon 5–8

⁵I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;

I gather my myrrh with my spice;

I eat my honeycomb with my honey;

I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love.^*

Another Dream

²I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.

The sound of my beloved knocking!

“Open to me, my sister, my love,

my dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”^*

³I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on again?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?^*

⁴My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,

and my inmost being yearned for him.

⁵I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

upon the handles of the bolt.^*

⁶I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned away and was gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him but did not find him;

I called him, but he gave no answer.^*

⁷Making their rounds in the city

the sentinels found me;

they beat me; they wounded me;

they took away my mantle,

those sentinels of the walls.^*

⁸I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

tell him this:

I am faint with love.^*

Colloquy of Friends and the Young Woman

⁹What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O fairest among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus charge us?^*

¹⁰My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves

beside springs of water,

bathed in milk,

fitly set.^j*

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices,

yielding fragrance.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.^*

¹⁴His arms are rounded gold,

set with jewels.

His body is an ivory panel,^k

decorated with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are alabaster columns,

set upon bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

¹⁶His speech is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved, and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.^*

⁶Where has your beloved gone,

O fairest among women?

Which way has your beloved turned

that we may seek him with you?^*

²My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to pasture his flock in the gardens

and to gather lilies.^*

³I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.^*

The Young Woman’s Matchless Beauty

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,

comely as Jerusalem,

terrible as an army with banners.^*

⁵Turn away your eyes from me,

for they overwhelm me!

Your hair is like a flock of goats,

moving down the slopes of Gilead.^*

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

that have come up from the washing;

all of them bear twins,

and not one among them is bereaved.^*

⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.^*

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines

and maidens without number.^*

⁹My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

the darling of her mother,

flawless to her who bore her.

The maidens saw her and called her happy;

the queens and concubines praised her.^*

¹⁰“Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,

fair as the moon, bright as the sun,

terrible as an army with banners?”^*

¹¹I went down to the nut orchard

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to see whether the vines had budded,

whether the pomegranates were in bloom.^*

¹²Before I was aware, my desire set me

in a chariot beside my prince.^l

^13mReturn, return, O Shulammite!

Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,

as upon a dance before two armies?^n*

Expressions of Praise

⁷How graceful are your feet in sandals,

O queenly maiden!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.^*

²Your navel is a rounded bowl;

may it never lack mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

³Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.^*

⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

overlooking Damascus.^*

⁵Your head crowns you like Carmel,

and your flowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.^*

⁶How fair and pleasant you are,

O loved one, delectable maiden!^o*

⁷You are stately^p as a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

⁸I said, “I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its branches.”

O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,^*

⁹and your kisses^q like the best wine

that goes down^r smoothly,

gliding over lips and teeth.^s

¹⁰I am my beloved’s,

and his desire is for me.^*

¹¹Come, my beloved,

let us go forth into the fields

and lodge in the villages;

¹²let us go out early to the vineyards;

let us see whether the vines have budded,

whether the grape blossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.^*

¹³The mandrakes give forth fragrance,

and over our doors are all choice fruits,

new as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.^*

⁸O that you were like a brother to me,

who nursed at my mother’s breast!

If I met you outside, I would kiss you,

and no one would despise me.

²I would lead you and bring you

into my mother’s house

and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^t

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

from the juice of my pomegranates.^*

³O that his left hand were under my head

and that his right hand embraced me!^*

⁴I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

do not stir up or awaken love

until it is ready!^*

Homecoming

⁵Who is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.

There your mother was in labor with you;

there she who bore you was in labor.^*

⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

passion fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

a raging flame.^*

⁷Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If one offered for love

all the wealth of one’s house,

it^u would be utterly scorned.

⁸We have a little sister,

and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister,

on the day when she is spoken for?^*

⁹If she is a wall,

we will build upon her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who brings^v peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.^*

¹²My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens,

my companions are listening for your voice;

let me hear it.^*

¹⁴Make haste, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

upon the mountains of spices!^*