1
I 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, companions. Drink, and become deeply satisfied, beloved ones.
2
I was sleeping, but my heart was awake. The voice of my beloved— he was knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my whole one. For my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”
3
“I have taken off my garment. How shall I put it on again? I have washed my feet. How shall I soil them?”
4
My beloved sent his hand through the opening, and my inward parts were stirred because of him.
5
I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with flowing myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.
6
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and passed on. My being went out when he spoke. I sought him, but I did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer me.
7
The watchmen who go about the city found me. They struck me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil from me.
8
I adjure you, O daughters of Yerushalayim: if you find my beloved, what shall you tell him? That I am faint with love.
9
What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you adjure us so?
10
My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
11
His head is pure gold. His locks are waving, black as a raven.
12
His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, washed in milk, sitting in fullness.
13
His cheeks are like beds of spices, towers of fragrant herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping flowing myrrh.
14
His hands are cylinders of gold, set with precious stones. His body is polished ivory, overlaid with sapphires.
15
His legs are pillars of marble, set upon bases of fine gold. His appearance is like Levanon, choice as the cedars.
16
His mouth is sweetness itself, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, O daughters of Yerushalayim.