Song of Songs 5:8-16

Christian Standard Bible

⁸Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you,^(A)
if you find my love,
tell him that I am lovesick.^(B)

Young Women

⁹What makes the one you love better than another,
most beautiful of women?^(C)
What makes him better than another,
that you would give us this charge?

Woman

¹⁰My love is fit and strong,^[a]^(D)
notable among ten thousand.^(E)

¹¹His head is purest gold.
His hair is wavy^[b]^(F)
and black as a raven.
¹²His eyes are like doves^(G)
beside flowing streams,
washed in milk
and set like jewels.^[c]
¹³His cheeks^(H) are like beds of spice,
mounds of^[d] perfume.
His lips are lilies,
dripping with flowing myrrh.^(I)
¹⁴His arms^[e] are rods of gold
set^[f] with beryl.^(J)
His body^[g] is an ivory panel
covered with lapis lazuli.^(K)
¹⁵His legs are alabaster pillars
set on pedestals of pure gold.
His presence is like Lebanon,^(L)
as majestic as the cedars.^(M)
¹⁶His mouth is sweetness.
He is absolutely desirable.^(N)
This is my love, and this is my friend,
young women of Jerusalem.

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Footnotes

5:10 Or is radiant and ruddy
5:11 Or is like palm leaves; Hb obscure
5:12 Lit milk sitting in fullness
5:13 LXX, Vg read spice, yielding
5:14 Lit hands
5:14 Lit filled; Sg 5:2,12
5:14 Lit abdomen

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