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Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding

I was asleep but[a] my heart was awake.
    A sound! My beloved knocking![b]
“Open to me, my sister, my beloved,
    my dove, my perfect one!
For my head is full of dew,
    my hair drenched from the moist night air.”[c]
I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?[d]
    I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?[e]
My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
    and my inmost yearned for him.
I myself arose to open to my beloved;
    my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
    upon the handles of the bolt.
I opened myself to my beloved,
    but my beloved had turned and gone;[f]
my heart sank[g] when he turned away.[h]
I sought him, but I did not find him;
    I called him, but he did not answer me.
The sentinels making rounds in the city found me;
    they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloak[i] away from me—
    those sentinels on the walls![j]

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Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “and”
  2. Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
  3. Song of Solomon 5:2 Literally “my locks with drops of night”
  4. Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I put it on?”
  5. Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I soil them?”
  6. Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”
  7. Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my soul left”
  8. Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “when he was speaking.” Translations equivocate on how to translate this verb, since there are two terms in Hebrew spelled identically: “to speak” and “to turn aside” (HALOT 1:210). The context suggests the latter
  9. Song of Solomon 5:7 Or “mantle”
  10. Song of Solomon 5:7 Literally “the sentinels of the walls”

She

I slept but my heart was awake.
    Listen! My beloved is knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
    my dove,(A) my flawless(B) one.(C)
My head is drenched with dew,
    my hair with the dampness of the night.”
I have taken off my robe—
    must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet—
    must I soil them again?
My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
    my heart began to pound for him.
I arose to open for my beloved,
    and my hands dripped with myrrh,(D)
my fingers with flowing myrrh,
    on the handles of the bolt.
I opened for my beloved,(E)
    but my beloved had left; he was gone.(F)
    My heart sank at his departure.[a]
I looked(G) for him but did not find him.
    I called him but he did not answer.
The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.(H)
They beat me, they bruised me;
    they took away my cloak,
    those watchmen of the walls!

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Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 5:6 Or heart had gone out to him when he spoke