5 He

5:1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Others

Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

²I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! 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, on 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 bruised me, they took away my veil, 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.

Others

⁹What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?

The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

¹⁰My beloved is 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 streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool.^[1]¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. ¹⁴His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory,[2] bedecked with sapphires.^[3]¹⁵His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. ¹⁶His mouth[4] is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

[1] The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [2] The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [3] Hebrew lapis lazuli [4] Hebrew palate

6Others

6:1 Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

²My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze[5] in the gardens and to gather lilies.

³I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. ⁵Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping 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 has lost its young. ⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. ⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. ⁹My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

¹⁰“Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”

She

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 among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.^[6]

Others

¹³ [7] Return, 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?[8]

[5] Or to pasture his flock; also verse 3 [6] Or chariots of Ammi-Nadib [7] Ch 7:1 in Hebrew [8] Or dance of Mahanaim

7 7:1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. ²Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks 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, which looks toward Damascus. ⁵Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses.

⁶How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights!^[9]⁷Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. ⁸I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, ⁹and your mouth[10] like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.[11] ¹⁰I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

¹¹Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages;^[12]¹²let us go out early to the vineyards and 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 beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

[9] Or among delights [10] Hebrew palate [11] Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew causing the lips of sleepers to speak

8 Longing for Her Beloved

8:1 Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me. ²I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother— she who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate. ³His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! ⁴I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

⁵Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on 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, jealousy[13] is fierce as the grave.^[14]Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. ⁷Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he[15] would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

Others

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 on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

¹⁰I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds 16] peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. ¹²My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.

She

¹⁴Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

[12] Or among the henna plants [13] Or ardor [14] Hebrew as Sheol [15] Or it [16] Or brings out