Song of Solomon 5

²I slept, but my heart was awake.

Listen! my beloved is 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.”

³I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on again?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

⁴My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,

and my inmost being yearned for him.

⁵I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

upon the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned 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.

⁷Making 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.

⁸I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

tell him this:

I am faint with love.

⁹What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O fairest among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

¹⁰My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves

beside springs of water,

bathed in milk,

fitly set.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices,

yielding fragrance.

His lips are lilies,

distilling liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rounded gold,

set with jewels.

His body is ivory work,

encrusted with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are alabaster columns,

set upon bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

¹⁶His speech is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.