Song of Solomon Ch. 5-8 : English Standard Version   | SearchSearch | Next Version | Previous Page | Next Page |

Other Versions5 He

5:1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Others

Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

2I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! 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? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? 4My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. 5I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. 6I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. 7The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls. 8I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love.

Others

9What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?

The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

10My beloved is 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 streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool.[1] 13His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. 14His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory,[2] bedecked with sapphires.[3] 15His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 16His mouth[4] is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

[1] The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain  [2] The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain  [3] Hebrew lapis lazuli  [4] Hebrew palate


6Others

6:1 Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

2My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze[5] in the gardens and to gather lilies.

3I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

4You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. 5Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. 6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young. 7Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. 8There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. 9My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

10“Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”

She

11I 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. 12Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.[6]

Others

13 [7] Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?[8]

[5] Or to pasture his flock; also verse 3  [6] Or chariots of Ammi-Nadib  [7] Ch 7:1 in Hebrew  [8] Or dance of Mahanaim


7 7:1  How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. 2Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies. 3Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. 5Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses.

6How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights![9] 7Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. 8I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, 9and your mouth[10] like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.[11]  10I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

11Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages;[12] 12let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. 13The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

[9] Or among delights  [10] Hebrew palate  [11] Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew causing the lips of sleepers to speak


8 Longing for Her Beloved

8:1   Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me. 2I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother— she who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate. 3His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! 4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

5Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.

6Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy[13] is fierce as the grave.[14] Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. 7Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he[15] would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

Others

8We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? 9If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

10I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds 16] peace.

11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. 12My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

13O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.

She

14Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag   on the mountains of spices.

[12] Or among the henna plants  [13] Or ardor  [14] Hebrew as Sheol  [15] Or it  [16] Or brings out

Other Versions