Song of Songs 5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh with my spice;
I eat my honeycomb with my honey;
I drink my wine with my milk.
Eat, friends, drink,
and be drunk with love.(A)
Another Dream
2 I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
The sound of my beloved knocking!
“Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.”(B)
3 I had put off my garment;
how could I put it on again?
I had bathed my feet;
how could I soil them?(C)
4 My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
and my inmost being yearned for him.
5 I arose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
upon the handles of the bolt.(D)
6 I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned away and was gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him but did not find him;
I called him, but he gave no answer.(E)
7 Making their rounds in the city
the sentinels found me;
they beat me; they wounded me;
they took away my mantle,
those sentinels of the walls.(F)
8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
tell him this:
I am faint with love.(G)
Colloquy of Friends and the Young Woman
9 What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O fairest among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
that you thus charge us?(H)
10 My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,
distinguished among ten thousand.
11 His head is the finest gold;
his locks are wavy,
black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
beside springs of water,
bathed in milk,
fitly set.[a](I)
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
yielding fragrance.
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.(J)
14 His arms are rounded gold,
set with jewels.
His body is an ivory panel,[b]
decorated with sapphires.
15 His legs are alabaster columns,
set upon bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
choice as the cedars.
16 His speech is most sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.(K)
6 Where has your beloved gone,
O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned
that we may seek him with you?(L)
2 My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens
and to gather lilies.(M)
3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.(N)
The Young Woman’s Matchless Beauty
4 You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
comely as Jerusalem,
terrible as an army with banners.(O)
5 Turn away your eyes from me,
for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
moving down the slopes of Gilead.(P)
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins,
and not one among them is bereaved.(Q)
7 Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.(R)
8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines
and maidens without number.(S)
9 My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
the darling of her mother,
flawless to her who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her happy;
the queens and concubines praised her.(T)
10 “Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?”(U)
11 I went down to the nut orchard
to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
whether the pomegranates were in bloom.(V)
12 Before I was aware, my desire set me
in a chariot beside my prince.[c]
13 [d]Return, return, O Shulammite!
Return, return, that we may look upon you.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.