1 I have come to my garden — my sister, my bride.

I gather  * my myrrh with my spices.

I eat my honeycomb with my honey.

I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends!

Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!  *,*

2 I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.

A sound! My love was knocking!  *

Open to me, my sister, my darling,

my dove, my perfect one.

For my head is drenched with dew,

my hair with droplets of the night.

3 I have taken off my clothing.  *

How can I put it back on?

I have washed my feet.

How can I get them dirty?

4 My love thrust his hand through the opening,

and my feelings were stirred for him.

5 I rose to open for my love.

My hands dripped with myrrh,  *

my fingers with flowing myrrh

on the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened to my love,

but my love had turned and gone away.

My heart sank  * because he had left.  *

I sought him, but did not find him.  *

I called him, but he did not answer.

7 The guards who go about the city found me.  *

They beat and wounded me;

they took my cloak  * from me —

the guardians of the walls.  *

8 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you,  *

if you find my love,

tell him that I am lovesick.  *

9 What makes the one you love better than another,

most beautiful of women?  *

What makes him better than another,

that you would give us this charge?

10 My love is fit and strong,  *,*

notable among ten thousand.  *

11 His head is purest gold.

His hair is wavy  *,*

and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves  *

beside flowing streams,

washed in milk

and set like jewels.  *

13 His cheeks  * are like beds of spice,

mounds of  *  perfume.

His lips are lilies,

dripping with flowing myrrh.  *

14 His arms  * are rods of gold

set  * with beryl.  *

His body  * is an ivory panel

covered with lapis lazuli.  *

15 His legs are alabaster pillars

set on pedestals of pure gold.

His presence is like Lebanon,  *

as majestic as the cedars.  *

16 His mouth is sweetness.

He is absolutely desirable.  *

This is my love, and this is my friend,

young women of Jerusalem.