Song of Solomon 5-8

Revised Geneva Translation

5 “I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I gathered my myrrh with my spice. I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk: eat, O friends, drink, and make you merry, O well-beloved.”

² “I sleep, but my heart wakes. It is the voice of my well-beloved who knocks, saying, ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is full of dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.’

³ “I have taken off my garment, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall I soil them?

⁴ “My well-beloved put in his hand by the opening, and my core was moved toward him.

⁵ “I rose up to open to my well-beloved, and my hands did drop down myrrh, and my fingers pure myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.

⁶ “I opened to my well-beloved, but my well-beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart failed when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he did not answer me.

⁷ “The watchmen who were around the city found me. They struck me and wounded me. The watchmen of the walls took away my veil from me.

⁸ “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my well-beloved, that you tell him that I am lovesick!”

⁹ “O the fairest among women! What is your well-beloved more than other well-beloved? What is your well-beloved more than another lover, that you so charge us?”

¹⁰ “My well-beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand.

¹¹ “His head is as fine gold, his locks curled and black as a raven.

¹² “His eyes are like doves upon the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fittingly set.

¹³ “His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, and his lips like lilies dropping down pure myrrh.

¹⁴ “His hands are as rings of gold set with the chrysolite, his belly like white ivory covered with sapphires.

¹⁵ “His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold, his face as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

¹⁶ “His mouth is as sweet things, and he is wholly delectable. This is my well-beloved, and this is my lover, O daughters of Jerusalem!”

¹⁷ “O fairest among women! Where has your well-beloved gone? Where has your well-beloved turned aside, so that we may seek him with you?”

6 “My well-beloved has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and gather lilies.

² “I am my well-beloved’s. And my well-beloved is mine, who feeds among the lilies.”

³ “You, my love, are beautiful as Tirzah, as comely as Jerusalem, as terrible as an army with banners.

⁴ “Turn away your eyes from me, for they overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, which look down from Gilead.

⁵ “Your teeth are like a flock of sheep, which go up from the washing, from which each one brings out twins. And none is barren among them.

⁶ “Your temples are as a piece of a pomegranate within your locks.

⁷ “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and virgins without number.

⁸ “But my dove is alone. My undefiled, she is the only daughter of her mother, and she is dear to her who bore her. The daughters have seen her and counted her blessed, as have the queens and the concubines, and they have praised her.

⁹ “Who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, pure as the Sun, awesome as an army with banners!

¹⁰ “I went down to the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, to see if the vine budded, and if the pomegranates flourished.

¹¹ “I knew nothing. My soul set me as the chariots of my noble people.

¹² “Return! Return, O Shulamite, return! Return so that we may behold you!” “What shall you see in the Shulamite—the dance of two armies, as it were?”

7 “How beautiful are your feet with sandals, O prince’s daughter! The joints of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a cunning workman’s hand.

² “Your navel is as a round cup that does not lack liquor. Your belly is as a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies.

³ “Your two breasts are as two twin fawns of a gazelle.

⁴ “Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the fish pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is as the tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.

⁵ “Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of your head like purple. The king is tied in the rafters.

⁶ “How fair you are, and how pleasant you are, O my love, in pleasures!

⁷ “This, your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters.

⁸ “I said, ‘I will go up into the palm tree. I will take hold of her branches.’ Your breasts shall now be like the clusters of the vine, and the savor of your nose like apples,

⁹ “and the roof of your mouth like good wine, “which goes straight to my well-beloved and causes the lips of the ancient to speak.

¹⁰ “I am my well-beloved’s. And his desire is toward me.

¹¹ “Come, my well-beloved, let us go forth into the field. Let us remain in the villages.

¹² “Let us get up early to the vines. Let us see if the vine flourishes, whether it has budded the small grapes, or where the pomegranates flourish. There I will give you my love.

¹³ “The mandrakes have given a smell. And in our gates are all sweet things, new and old. My well-beloved, I have kept them for you.”

8 “Oh that you were as my brother who sucked the breasts of my mother. I would find you outside. I would kiss you. Then they would not despise you.

² “I will lead you and bring you into my mother’s house. There you shall teach me. I will make you drink spiced wine, new wine of the pomegranate.

³ “His left hand shall be under my head. And his right hand shall embrace me.

⁴ “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you neither stir up nor awaken my love until she pleases.”

⁵ “Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her well-beloved? I raised you up under an apple tree. There your mother conceived you. There she conceived who bore you.”

⁶ “Set me as a seal on your heart, as a signet upon your arm. For love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its coals are fiery coals, a vehement flame.

⁷ “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the rivers drown it. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, they would greatly despise it.”

⁸ “We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister when she shall be spoken for?

⁹ “If she is a wall, we will build a silver palace upon her. And if she is a door, we will keep her in with boards of cedar.”

¹⁰ “I am a wall. And my breasts are as towers. Then I was, in his eyes, as one who finds peace.

¹¹ “Solomon had a vine in Baal Hamon. He gave the vineyard to keepers. Everyone brought forth a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.

¹² “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. To you, O Solomon, belongs a thousand, and two hundred to those who keep its fruit.”

¹³ “O you who dwells in the gardens, the companions listen to your voice! Let me hear it!”

¹⁴ “O my well-beloved, flee away and be like the gazelle, or the young stag upon the mountains of spices.”