Song of Solomon 4:1–6:12

¹Behold, you are beautiful, my love,

behold, you are beautiful!

Your eyes are doves

behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats,

moving down the slopes of Gilead.

²Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

and not one among them is bereaved.

³Your lips are like a scarlet thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

⁴Your neck is like the tower of David,

built for an arsenal,

whereon hang a thousand bucklers,

all of them shields of warriors.

⁵Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle,

that feed among the lilies.

⁶Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

I will hie me to the mountain of myrrh

and the hill of frankincense.

⁷You are all fair, my love;

there is no flaw in you.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;

come with me from Lebanon.

Depart from the peak of Amana,

from the peak of Senir and Hermon,

from the dens of lions,

from the mountains of leopards.

⁹You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride,

you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,

with one jewel of your necklace.

¹⁰How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!

how much better is your love than wine,

and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

¹¹Your lips distil nectar, my bride;

honey and milk are under your tongue;

the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.

¹²A garden locked is my sister, my bride,

a garden locked, a fountain sealed.

¹³Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates

with all choicest fruits,

henna with nard,

¹⁴nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,

with all trees of frankincense,

myrrh and aloes,

with all chief spices—

¹⁵a garden fountain, a well of living water,

and flowing streams from Lebanon.

¹⁶Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my garden,

let its fragrance be wafted abroad.

Let my beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.

Chapter 5

¹I 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, O friends, and drink:

drink deeply, O lovers!

²I slept, but my heart was awake.

Hark! my beloved is 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?

I had bathed my feet,

how could I soil them?

⁴My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

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 and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

⁷The watchmen found me,

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they wounded me,

they took away my mantle,

those watchmen of the walls.

⁸I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

I am sick with love.

⁹What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O fairest among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure 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.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices,

yielding fragrance.

His lips are lilies,

distilling liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rounded gold,

set with jewels.

His body is ivory work,

encrusted 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.

Chapter 6

¹Whither has your beloved gone,

O fairest among women?

Whither 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.

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,

comely as Jerusalem,

terrible as an army with banners.

⁵Turn away your eyes from me,

for they disturb 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,

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 only one,

the darling of her mother,

flawless to her that bore her.

The maidens saw her and called her happy;

the queens and concubines also, and they 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 fancy set me

in a chariot beside my prince.