Song of Solomon 5

1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends; drink, and be drunk, beloved ones.

2I was asleep, but my heart was awake. The sound of my beloved knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my blameless one, for my head is drenched with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”

3I have taken off my tunic—how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet—how can I soil them?

4My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my inward parts trembled for him.

5I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

6I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had slipped away and gone. My soul went out when he spoke; I sought him, but I did not find him. I called to him, but he did not answer me.

7The watchmen who patrol the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me; the guards on the walls took my cloak from me.

8I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem: if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? That I am sick with love.

9How is your beloved better than another, most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you have made us swear like this?

10My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.

11His head is finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.

12His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, set in fullness.

13His cheeks are like beds of spice, mounds of fragrant herbs; his lips are lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.

14His hands are rods of gold, set with beryl; his abdomen is polished ivory, covered with sapphires.

15His legs are pillars of marble, set on bases of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.

16His mouth is sweetness itself, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.