Song of Solomon 5-8

American Standard Version

5 I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride:
I have gathered my myrrh with my ^[a]spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Eat, O friends;
Drink, yea, drink abundantly, ^[b]O beloved.

² I ^[c]was asleep, but my heart waked:
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,
Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my ^[d]undefiled;
For my head is filled with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.
³ I have put off my garment; 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 ^[e]heart was moved for him.
⁵ I rose up to open to my beloved;
And my hands dropped with myrrh,
And my fingers with liquid myrrh,
Upon the handles of the bolt.
⁶ I opened to my beloved;
But my beloved had ^[f]withdrawn himself, and was gone.
My soul ^[g]had failed me when he spake:
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 ^[h]mantle from me.
⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If ye find my beloved,
^[i]That ye tell him, that I am sick from love.

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,
^[j]The chiefest among ten thousand.
¹¹ His head is as the most fine gold;
His locks are ^[k]bushy, and black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks,
Washed with milk, and ^[l]fitly set.
¹³ His cheeks are as a bed of ^[m]spices,
As ^[n]banks of sweet herbs:
His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His hands are as ^[o]rings of gold set with ^[p]beryl:
His body is as ^[q]ivory work ^[r]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 ^[s]mouth is most sweet;
Yea, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.

6 Whither is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women?
Whither hath thy beloved turned him,
That we may seek him with thee?

² My beloved is gone down to his garden,
To the beds of ^[t]spices,
To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine:
He feedeth his flock among the lilies.

⁴ Thou art fair, O my love, as Tirzah,
Comely as Jerusalem,
Terrible as ^[u]an army with banners.
⁵ Turn away thine eyes from me,
For they ^[v]have overcome me.
Thy hair is as a flock of goats,
That lie along the side of Gilead.
⁶ Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes,
Which are come up from the washing;
Whereof every one hath twins,
And none is bereaved among them.
⁷ Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate
Behind thy veil.
⁸ There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,
And ^[w]virgins without number.
⁹ My dove, my ^[x]undefiled, is but one;
She is the only one of her mother;
She is the ^[y]choice one of her that bare her.
The daughters saw her, and called her blessed;
Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

¹⁰ Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
^[z]Clear as the sun,
Terrible as an army with banners?

¹¹ I went down into the garden of nuts,
To see the green plants of the valley,
To see whether the vine budded,
And the pomegranates were in flower.
¹² Before I was aware, my ^[aa]soul ^[ab]set me
Among the chariots of my ^[ac]princely people.

¹³ Return, return, O Shulammite;
Return, return, that we may look upon thee.
Why will ye look upon the Shulammite,
As upon the dance ^[ad]of Mahanaim?

7 How beautiful are thy ^[ae]feet in sandals, O prince’s daughter!
Thy rounded thighs are like jewels,
The work of the hands of a skilful workman.
² Thy body is like a round goblet,
Wherein no mingled wine is wanting:
Thy waist is like a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
³ Thy two breasts are like two fawns
That are twins of a roe.
⁴ Thy neck is like the tower of ivory;
Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon,
By the gate of Bath-rabbim;
Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Which looketh toward Damascus.
⁵ Thy head upon thee is like Carmel,
And the hair of thy head like purple;
The king is held captive in the tresses thereof.
⁶ How fair and how pleasant art thou,
O love, for delights!
⁷ This thy stature is like to a palm-tree,
And thy breasts to its clusters.
⁸ I said, I will climb up into the palm-tree,
I will take hold of the branches thereof:
Let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine,
And the smell of thy ^[af]breath like apples,
⁹ And thy ^[ag]mouth like the best wine,
That goeth down ^[ah]smoothly for my beloved,
^[ai]Gliding through the lips of those that are asleep.

¹⁰ I am my beloved’s;
And his desire is toward me.
¹¹ Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field;
Let us lodge in the villages.
¹² Let us get up early to the vineyards;
Let us see whether the vine hath budded,
And ^[aj]its blossom is open,
And the pomegranates are in flower:
There will I give thee my love.
¹³ The mandrakes give forth fragrance;
And ^[ak]at our doors are all manner of precious fruits, new and old,
Which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
8 Oh that thou wert as my brother,
That sucked the breasts of my mother!
When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;
Yea, and none would despise me.
² I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house,
^[al]Who would instruct me;
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine,
Of the ^[am]juice of my pomegranate.
³ His left hand should be under my head,
And his right hand should embrace me.

⁴ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
^[an]That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Until ^[ao]he please.

⁵ Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,
Leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple-tree I awakened thee:
There thy mother was in travail with thee,
There was she in travail ^[ap]that brought thee forth.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon thy heart,
As a seal upon thine arm:
For love is strong as death;
Jealousy is ^[aq]cruel as Sheol;
The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,
^[ar]A very flame of ^[as]Jehovah.
⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can floods drown it:
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
^[at]He would utterly be contemned.

⁸ We have a little sister,
And she hath no breasts:
What shall we do for our sister
In the day when she shall be spoken for?

⁹ If she be a wall,
We will build upon her ^[au]a turret of silver:
And if she be a door,
We will inclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰ I ^[av]am a wall, and my breasts like the towers thereof
Then was I in his eyes as one that found peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
He let out the vineyard unto keepers;
Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
¹² My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:
Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand,
And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

¹³ Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
The companions hearken ^[aw]for thy voice:
Cause me to hear it.

^14 [ax]Make haste, my beloved,
And be thou like to a ^[ay]roe or to a young hart
Upon the mountains of spices.