| 1 ¶ I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: 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,1 drink abundantly, O beloved.
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| 2 ¶ I sleep, but my heart waketh: 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, and my locks with the drops of the night.
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| 3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
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| 4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.2
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| 5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet3 smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
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| 6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
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| 7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
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| 8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye4 find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
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| 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 charge us?
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| 10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest5 among ten thousand.
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| 11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy,6 and black as a raven.
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| 12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly7 set.
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| 13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers:8 his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
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| 14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
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| 15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
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| 16 His mouth9 is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
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