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

2   I 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.”
3   I had put off my garment;
    how could I put it on?
  I had bathed my feet;
    how could I soil them?
4   My beloved put his hand to the latch,
    and my heart was thrilled within me.
5   I arose to open to my beloved,
    and my hands dripped with myrrh,
  my fingers with liquid myrrh,
    on the handles of the bolt.
6   I 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.
7   The 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.
8   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    if you find my beloved,
  that you tell him
    I am sick with love.

Others

9   What 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

10   My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
    distinguished among ten thousand.
11   His head is the finest gold;
    his locks are wavy,
    black as a raven.
12   His eyes are like doves
    beside streams of water,
  bathed in milk,
    sitting beside a full pool.
13   His cheeks are like beds of spices,
    mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
  His lips are lilies,
    dripping liquid myrrh.
14   His arms are rods of gold,
    set with jewels.
  His body is polished ivory,
    bedecked with sapphires.
15   His legs are alabaster columns,
    set on bases of gold.
  His appearance is like Lebanon,
    choice as the cedars.
16   His mouth is most sweet,
    and he is altogether desirable.
  This is my beloved and this is my friend,
    O daughters of Jerusalem.

Others

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

2   My beloved has gone down to his garden
    to the beds of spices,
  to graze in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.
3   I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

4   You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
    lovely as Jerusalem,
    awesome as an army with banners.
5   Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they overwhelm me—
  Your hair is like a flock of goats
    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
6   Your 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.
7   Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
8   There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
    and virgins without number.
9   My 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

11   I 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.
12   Before I was aware, my desire set me
    among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

13   Return, return, O Shulammite,
    return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

  Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?


  7:1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O noble daughter!
  Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
    the work of a master hand.
2   Your navel is a rounded bowl
    that never lacks mixed wine.
  Your belly is a heap of wheat,
    encircled with lilies.
3   Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
4   Your 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.
5   Your head crowns you like Carmel,
    and your flowing locks are like purple;
    a king is held captive in the tresses.


6   How beautiful and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, with all your delights!
7   Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
8   I 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,
9   and your mouth like the best wine.

She

  It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
    gliding over lips and teeth.


10   I am my beloved’s,
    and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

11   Come, my beloved,
    let us go out into the fields
    and lodge in the villages;
12   let 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.
13   The 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.