5 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
    I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
    I have drunk my wine and my milk.

Eat, friends, and drink;
    drink your fill of love.

² I slept but my heart was awake.
    Listen! My beloved is knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
    my dove, my flawless one.
My head is drenched with dew,
    my hair with the dampness of the night.”
³ I have taken off my robe—
    must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet—
    must I soil them again?
⁴ My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
    my heart began to pound for him.
⁵ I arose to open for my beloved,
    and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with flowing myrrh,
    on the handles of the bolt.
⁶ I opened for my beloved,
    but my beloved had left; he was gone.
    My heart sank at his departure.^[a]
I looked for him but did not find him.
    I called him but he did not answer.
⁷ The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.
They beat me, they bruised me;
    they took away my cloak,
    those watchmen of the walls!
⁸ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—
    if you find my beloved,
what will you tell him?
    Tell him I am faint with love.

⁹ How is your beloved better than others,
    most beautiful of women?
How is your beloved better than others,
    that you so charge us?

¹⁰ My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
    outstanding among ten thousand.
¹¹ His head is purest gold;
    his hair is wavy
    and black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves
    by the water streams,
washed in milk,
    mounted like jewels.
¹³ His cheeks are like beds of spice
    yielding perfume.
His lips are like lilies
    dripping with myrrh.
¹⁴ His arms are rods of gold
    set with topaz.
His body is like polished ivory
    decorated with lapis lazuli.
¹⁵ His legs are pillars of marble
    set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
    choice as its cedars.
¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness itself;
    he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, this is my friend,
    daughters of Jerusalem.

6 Where has your beloved gone,
    most beautiful of women?
Which way did your beloved turn,
    that we may look for him with you?

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
to browse in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he browses among the lilies.

⁴ You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,
    as lovely as Jerusalem,
    as majestic as troops with banners.
⁵ Turn your eyes from me;
    they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    descending from Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
    coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin,
    not one of them is missing.
⁷ Your temples behind your veil
    are like the halves of a pomegranate.
⁸ Sixty queens there may be,
    and eighty concubines,
    and virgins beyond number;
⁹ but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,
    the only daughter of her mother,
    the favorite of the one who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed;
    the queens and concubines praised her.

¹⁰ Who is this that appears like the dawn,
    fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
    majestic as the stars in procession?

¹¹ I went down to the grove of nut trees
    to look at the new growth in the valley,
to see if the vines had budded
    or the pomegranates were in bloom.
¹² Before I realized it,
    my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.^[b]

¹³ Come back, come back, O Shulammite;
    come back, come back, that we may gaze on you!

Why would you gaze on the Shulammite
    as on the dance of Mahanaim?^[c]