Song of Solomon 5-7

New King James Version

The Bride Praises the Bridegroom

The Beloved

5 I ^(A)have come to my garden, my ^(B)sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
^(C)I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.

(To His Friends)

Eat, O ^(D)friends!
Drink, yes, drink deeply,
O beloved ones!

The Shulamite’s Troubled Evening

The Shulamite

²I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
^(E)He knocks, saying,
“Open for me, my sister, ^[a]my love,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew,
My ^[b]locks with the drops of the night.”

³I have taken off my robe;
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet;
How can I ^[c]defile them?
⁴My beloved put his hand
By the ^[d]latch of the door,
And my heart yearned for him.
⁵I arose to open for my beloved,
And my hands dripped with myrrh,
My fingers with liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the lock.

⁶I opened for my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and was gone.
My ^[e]heart leaped up when he spoke.
^(F)I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
⁷^(G)The watchmen who went about the city found me.
They struck me, they wounded me;
The keepers of the walls
Took my veil away from me.
⁸I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
That you tell him I am lovesick!

The Daughters of Jerusalem

⁹What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
^(H)O fairest among women?
What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
That you so ^[f]charge us?

The Shulamite

¹⁰My beloved is white and ruddy,
^[g]Chief among ten thousand.
¹¹His head is like the finest gold;
His locks are wavy,
And black as a raven.
¹²^(I)His eyes are like doves
By the rivers of waters,
Washed with milk,
And ^[h]fitly set.
¹³His cheeks are like a bed of spices,
Banks of scented herbs.
His lips are lilies,
Dripping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His hands are rods of gold
Set with beryl.
His body is carved ivory
Inlaid with sapphires.
¹⁵His legs are pillars of marble
Set on bases of fine gold.
His countenance is like Lebanon,
Excellent as the cedars.
¹⁶His mouth is most sweet,
Yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved,
And this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem!

I Am My Beloved’s

The Daughters of Jerusalem

6 Where has your beloved gone,
^(J)O fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned aside,
That we may seek him with you?

The Shulamite

²My beloved has gone to his ^(K)garden,
To the beds of spices,
To feed his flock in the gardens,
And to gather lilies.
³^(L)I am my beloved’s,
And my beloved is mine.
He feeds his flock among the lilies.

Praise of the Shulamite’s Beauty

The Beloved

⁴O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,
Lovely as Jerusalem,
Awesome as an army with banners!
⁵Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have ^[i]overcome me.
Your hair is ^(M)like a flock of goats
Going down from Gilead.
⁶^(N)Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which have come up from the washing;
Every one bears twins,
And none is ^[j]barren among them.
⁷^(O)Like a piece of pomegranate
Are your temples behind your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And ^(P)virgins without number.
⁹My dove, my ^(Q)perfect one,
Is the only one,
The only one of her mother,
The favorite of the one who bore her.
The daughters saw her
And called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines,
And they praised her.

¹⁰Who is she who looks forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
Clear as the sun,
^(R)Awesome as an army with banners?

The Shulamite

¹¹I went down to the garden of nuts
To see the verdure of the valley,
^(S)To see whether the vine had budded
And the pomegranates had bloomed.
¹²Before I was even aware,
My soul had made me
As the chariots of ^[k]my noble people.

The Beloved and His Friends

¹³Return, return, O Shulamite;
Return, return, that we may look upon you!

The Shulamite

What would you see in the Shulamite—
As it were, the dance of ^[l]the two camps?

Expressions of Praise

The Beloved

7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
^(T)O prince’s daughter!
The curves of your thighs are like jewels,
The work of the hands of a skillful workman.
²Your navel is a rounded goblet;
It lacks no ^[m]blended beverage.
Your waist is a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
³^(U)Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.
⁴^(V)Your neck is like an ivory tower,
Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon
By the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Which looks toward Damascus.
⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,
And the hair of your head is like purple;
A king is held captive by your tresses.

⁶How fair and how pleasant you are,
O love, with your delights!
⁷This stature of yours is like a palm tree,
And your breasts like its clusters.
⁸I said, “I will go up to the palm tree,
I will take hold of its branches.”
Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
The fragrance of your ^[n]breath like apples,
⁹And the roof of your mouth like the best wine.

The Shulamite

The wine goes down smoothly for my beloved,
^[o]Moving gently the ^[p]lips of sleepers.
¹⁰^(W)I am my beloved’s,
And ^(X)his desire is toward me.

¹¹Come, my beloved,
Let us go forth to the field;
Let us lodge in the villages.
¹²Let us get up early to the vineyards;
Let us ^(Y)see if the vine has budded,
Whether the grape blossoms are open,
And the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³The ^(Z)mandrakes give off a fragrance,
And at our gates ^(AA)are pleasant fruits,
All manner, new and old,
Which I have laid up for you, my beloved.