- 1
- I am 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, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
- 2
- I sleep, but my heart waketh;
Hark! my beloved knocketh: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."
- 3
- I have put off my coat;
how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
- 4
- My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him.
- 5
- I rose up to open to my beloved;
and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with flowing myrrh, upon the handles of the bar.
- 6
- I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved had turned away, and was gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
- 7
- The watchmen that go about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me;
the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.
- 8
- "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him?
that I am love-sick."
- 9
- "What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women?
What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so adjure us?"
- 10
- "My beloved is white and ruddy, pre-eminent above ten thousand.
- 11
- His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are curled, and black as a raven.
- 12
- His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks;
washed with milk, and fitly set.
- 13
- His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs;
his lips are as lilies, dropping with flowing myrrh.
- 14
- His hands are as rods of gold set with beryl;
his body is as polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.
- 15
- His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold;
his aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
- 16
- His mouth is most sweet;
yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."
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