Cantares 5

1 I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] bride: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

2 I was asleep, but my heart waked: It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [saying], Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.

3 I have put off my garment; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole [of the door], And my heart was moved for him.

5 I rose up to open to my beloved; And my hands droppeth with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, Upon the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself, [and] was gone. My soul had failed me when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

7 The watchmen that go about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.

8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved, That ye tell him, that I am sick from love.

9 What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, That thou dost so adjure us?

10 My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand.

11 His head is [as] the most fine gold; His locks are bushy, [and] black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, Washed with milk, [and] fitly set.

13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, [As] banks of sweet herbs: His lips are [as] lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

14 His hands are [as] rings of gold set with beryl: His body is [as] ivory work overlaid [with] sapphires.

15 His legs are [as] pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

16 His mouth is most sweet; Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.