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Song of Songs 5:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Song of Songs 5:5-7
New Catholic Bible
5 I arose to open to my beloved
with myrrh dripping from my hands;
the liquid myrrh from my fingers
ran onto the handle of the bolt.
6 I opened to my beloved,
but he had turned away and was gone;
my heart sank at his disappearance.
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called out to him, but he did not answer.[a]
I Am Sick with Love[b]
7 The watchmen[c] came upon me
as they made their rounds of the city.
They beat me and wounded me
and took my cloak from me,
those guardians of the walls.
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 5:6 This is the same prophetic formula used previously (see Song 3:1, 3 and notes). Here it is combined with another traditional formula indicating the Lord’s withdrawal from an unfaithful Israel (see Prov 1:28; Isa 50:2; 65:12; 66:4; Jer 7:27).
- Song of Songs 5:7 Distraught at having missed the rendezvous, the bride runs to seek out the bridegroom. What an adventure this journey into the night becomes! She runs into the guardians of the walls who maltreat her; then a group of young women joke at her: What do you see in your beloved? Her reply comes from the heart, for she bears the portrait of her beloved within her—what a treasure!
In Israel, after so many losses, there is reborn a new ardor to seek God when trials and mockeries mount up, at the return from the Exile or in the pagan dispersion. There is no clearer witness than a sincere conversion. But is not God the first to awaken the human heart in which he is secretly present? In St. Augustine’s words, “You would not be seeking me if you had not already found me.” The more we understand God, the more ardently do we seek his countenance. - Song of Songs 5:7 Watchmen: see note on Song 3:3.
