Song of Solomon 4–5

¹Lo, thou art fair, my friend, lo, thou art fair, Thine eyes are doves behind thy veil, Thy hair as a row of the goats That have shone from mount Gilead, ²Thy teeth as a row of the shorn ones That have come up from the washing, For all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them. ³As a thread of scarlet are thy lips, And thy speech is comely, As the work of the pomegranate is thy temple behind thy veil, ⁴As the tower of David is thy neck, built for an armoury, The chief of the shields are hung on it, All shields of the mighty. ⁵Thy two breasts are as two fawns, Twins of a roe, that are feeding among lilies. ⁶Till the day doth break forth, And the shadows have fled away, I will get me unto the mountain of myrrh, And unto the hill of frankincense. ⁷Thou art all fair, my friend, And a blemish there is not in thee. Come from Lebanon, O spouse,

⁸Come from Lebanon, come thou in. Look from the top of Amana, From the top of Shenir and Hermon, From the habitations of lions, From the mountains of leopards. ⁹Thou hast emboldened me, my sister-spouse, Emboldened me with one of thine eyes, With one chain of thy neck. ¹⁰How wonderful have been thy loves, my sister-spouse, How much better have been thy loves than wine, And the fragrance of thy perfumes than all spices. ¹¹Thy lips drop honey, O spouse, Honey and milk are under thy tongue, And the fragrance of thy garments Is as the fragrance of Lebanon. ¹²A garden shut up is my sister-spouse, A spring shut up—a fountain sealed. ¹³Thy shoots a paradise of pomegranates, With precious fruits, ¹⁴Cypresses with nard—nard and saffron, Cane and cinnamon, With all trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices.

¹⁵A fount of gardens, a well of living waters, And flowings from Lebanon! ¹⁶Awake, O north wind, and come, O south, Cause my garden to breathe forth, its spices let flow, Let my beloved come to his garden, And eat its pleasant fruits!

Chapter 5

¹I have come in to my garden, my sister-spouse, I have plucked my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, Yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ones!

²I am sleeping, but my heart waketh: The sound of my beloved knocking! ‘Open to me, my sister, my friend, My dove, my perfect one, For my head is filled with dew, My locks with drops of the night.’ ³I have put off my coat, how do I put it on? I have washed my feet, how do I defile them? ⁴My beloved sent his hand from the net-work, And my bowels were moved for him. ⁵I rose to open to my beloved, And my hands dropped myrrh, Yea, my fingers flowing myrrh, On the handles of the lock. ⁶I opened to my beloved, But my beloved withdrew—he passed on, My soul went forth when he spake, I sought him, and found him not. I called him, and he answered me not. ⁷The watchmen who go round about the city, Found me, smote me, wounded me, Keepers of the walls lifted up my veil from off me. ⁸I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved—What do ye tell him? that I am sick with love!

⁹What is thy beloved above any beloved, O fair among women? What is thy beloved above any beloved, That thus thou hast adjured us? ¹⁰My beloved is clear and ruddy, Conspicuous above a myriad! ¹¹His head is pure gold—fine gold, His locks flowing, dark as a raven, ¹²His eyes as doves by streams of water, Washing in milk, sitting in fulness. ¹³His cheeks as a bed of the spice, towers of perfumes, His lips are lilies, dropping flowing myrrh, ¹⁴His hands rings of gold, set with beryl, His heart bright ivory, covered with sapphires, ¹⁵His limbs pillars of marble, Founded on sockets of fine gold, His appearance as Lebanon, choice as the cedars. ¹⁶His mouth is sweetness—and all of him desirable, This is my beloved, and this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!

Chapter 6