Man
1I have come to my garden — my sister, my bride.
I gather5:1 Lit pluck my myrrh with my spices.
I eat my honeycomb with my honey.
I drink my wine with my milk.
Narrator
Eat, friends!
Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!5:1 Or Drink your fill, lovers5:1 Pr 5:19
Woman
2I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My love was knocking!5:2 Sg 2:8
Man
Open to me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew,
my hair with droplets of the night.
Woman
How can I put it back on?
I have washed my feet.
How can I get them dirty?
4My love thrust his hand through the opening,
and my feelings were stirred for him.
5I rose to open for my love.
My hands dripped with myrrh,5:5 Sg 5:13
my fingers with flowing myrrh
on the handles of the bolt.
6I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away.
My heart sank5:6 Lit My soul went out because he had left.5:6 Or spoken
I sought him, but did not find him.5:6 Sg 3:1–2
I called him, but he did not answer.
They beat and wounded me;
they took my cloak5:7 Or veil, or shawl from me —
the guardians of the walls.5:7 Sg 8:9–10
if you find my love,
tell him that I am lovesick.5:8 Sg 2:5
Young Women
9What makes the one you love better than another,
What makes him better than another,
that you would give us this charge?
Woman
notable among ten thousand.5:10 Ps 45:2
11His head is purest gold.
His hair is wavy5:11 Or is like palm leaves; Hb obscure5:11 Sg 5:2
and black as a raven.
beside flowing streams,
washed in milk
and set like jewels.5:12 Lit milk sitting in fullness
mounds of5:13 LXX, Vg read spice, yielding perfume.
His lips are lilies,
dripping with flowing myrrh.5:13 Sg 5:5
14His arms5:14 Lit hands are rods of gold
His body5:14 Lit abdomen is an ivory panel
covered with lapis lazuli.5:14 Ex 24:10
15His legs are alabaster pillars
set on pedestals of pure gold.
His presence is like Lebanon,5:15 Sg 7:4–5
as majestic as the cedars.5:15 1Kg 4:33
16His mouth is sweetness.
He is absolutely desirable.5:16 Sg 4:7
This is my love, and this is my friend,
young women of Jerusalem.
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