Song of Solomon 5-6

Song of Solomon 5

¹I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; to take my myrrh with my spice; my wax with my honey; my wine with my milk. Take meat, O friends; take wine, yes, be overcome with love.

²I am sleeping, but my heart is awake; it is the sound of my loved one at the door, saying, Be open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my very beautiful one; my head is wet with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night.

³I have put off my coat; how may I put it on? My feet are washed; how may I make them unclean?

⁴My loved one put his hand on the door, and my heart was moved for him.

⁵I got up to let my loved one in; and my hands were dropping with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the lock of the door.

⁶I made the door open to my loved one; but my loved one had taken himself away, and was gone, my soul was feeble when his back was turned on me; I went after him, but I did not come near him; I said his name, but he gave me no answer.

⁷The keepers who go about the town overtook me; they gave me blows and wounds; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

⁸I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved one, what will you say to him? That I am overcome with love.

⁹What is your loved one more than another, O fairest among women? What is your loved one more than another, that you say this to us?

¹⁰My loved one is white and red, the chief among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is as the most delicate gold; his hair is thick, and black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water streams, washed with milk, and rightly placed.

¹³His face is as beds of spices, giving out perfumes of every sort; his lips like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His hands are as rings of gold ornamented with beryl-stones; his body is as a smooth plate of ivory covered with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are as pillars of stone on a base of delicate gold; his looks are as Lebanon, beautiful as the cedar-tree.

¹⁶His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is all beautiful. This is my loved one, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon 6

¹Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women? Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go looking for him with you?

²My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies.

³I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies.

⁴You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags.

⁵Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their rest on the side of Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.

⁷Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.

⁹My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes, the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises.

¹⁰Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army with flags?

¹¹I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower.

¹²Before I was conscious of it, ...

¹³Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the Shulammite? A sword-dance.