1I 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 . 2I 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 .
The Bride's Regret and Search
3I have put off my garment ; how shall I put it on ? I have washed my feet ; how shall I defile them ? 4My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door , And my heart was moved for him . 5I rose up to open to my beloved ; And my hands dropped with myrrh , And my fingers with liquid myrrh , Upon the handles of the bolt . 6I opened to my beloved ; But my beloved had withdrawn himself , and was gone .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 .
The Bride's Description of Her Beloved
7The 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 . 8I adjure you , O daughters of Jerusalem , If ye find my beloved , That ye tell him , that I am sick from love . 9What 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? 10My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand . 11His head is as the most fine gold ; His locks are bushy , and black as a raven . 12His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, Washed with milk , and fitly set . 13His cheeks are as a bed of spices , As banks of sweet herbs : His lips are as lilies , dropping liquid myrrh . 14His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl : His body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires . 15His legs are as pillars of marble , set upon sockets of fine gold : His aspect is like Lebanon , excellent as the cedars. 16His mouth is most sweet ; Yea, he is altogether lovely . This is my beloved , and this is my friend , O daughters of Jerusalem .