Song of Solomon 5

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh along with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb along with my honey. I have drunk my wine along with my milk. Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill, lovers.

1I 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, drink abundantly, O beloved.

NoteThe garden is the image the previous chapter builds: the woman is called a locked garden full of spices, and she invites her lover into it (4:12–16). Here he answers that invitation, so "my garden," the myrrh, honey, wine and milk all continue that picture rather than describing an actual meal. "My sister, my bride" is not a statement of family relation: in Egyptian and other ancient Near Eastern love poetry "sister" was a standard term of affection between lovers. Myrrh is a fragrant gum that seeps from a desert shrub, used as perfume and for scenting clothes and bedding. The closing line, "Eat, friends," is spoken by someone else again, the Hebrew text has no speaker labels anywhere in the Song, so who is talking, and where one voice stops and another starts, is worked out from grammar and is often disputed.

2I am asleep, but my heart is awake. That is the voice of the man I love, knocking: "Open the door for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. My head is soaked with dew, my hair wet with the drops of the night."

2I 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.

NoteThe Hebrew verb forms leave it open whether what follows is something happening, something remembered, or a dream, "I am asleep, but my heart is awake" sets up that uncertainty rather than resolving it. "My perfect one" translates a word meaning whole, unblemished, without fault. Dew soaking his hair means he has been standing outside in the open through the cold part of the night.

3I have already taken off my robe. Must I put it back on? I have already washed my feet. Must I get them dirty again?

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

NoteThe robe is the light tunic worn next to the skin; taking it off is the last step before lying down, so she is undressed for the night. Feet were washed before bed because floors and streets were dirt and sandals left them filthy, getting up to cross the room to the door would undo both. The two questions are a lover's playful excuses, not a refusal.

4The man I love put his hand through the opening in the door, and my heart pounded for him.

4My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

NoteDoors were barred from the inside with a wooden or metal bolt, and many had a hole cut through them so that a hand could reach in and work the bolt from outside. The King James "my bowels were moved" is literal: Hebrew located strong feeling in the inner organs the way English locates it in the heart or the stomach.

5I got up to open the door for my love, and my hands dripped with myrrh. My fingers were wet with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

5I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

NoteLiquid or "flowing" myrrh is the finest grade, thin enough to drip, and was used as a scented oil on the body. Whether her hands are wet because she has perfumed herself for bed, or because he has left perfume on the door handles, is left unsaid.

6I opened the door for my love, but he had turned away and gone. My heart sank when he spoke. I looked for him but could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.

6I 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.

NoteThe Hebrew behind "my soul failed when he spake" is ambiguous: the word can mean "when he spoke" or "when he turned away," and the phrase itself literally reads "my life went out of me", a formula for the sensation of collapse or breathlessness.

7The watchmen making their rounds of the city found me. They beat me and wounded me. Those men who guard the walls took my cloak away from me.

7The 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.

NoteThe watchmen are the city's night guard, patrolling the streets and the tops of the walls; a woman alone outside after dark had no business there in their eyes. The garment they strip off her is a wrap or shawl worn over the tunic; the exact item is uncertain, but taking it from her in the street was a public humiliation as much as a theft.

8I make you promise this, daughters of Jerusalem: if you find the man I love, tell him that I am weak with love for him.

8I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.

Note"I charge you" is oath language (she is putting them under a formal obligation, the same words she uses at 2:7 and 3:5. The daughters of Jerusalem are the young women of the city, who act as a chorus in the Song: the woman speaks to them, and they answer back in the next verse. "Sick of love" in the King James means sick because of love) faint with longing, not tired of it; the sense of "sick of" has reversed since 1611.

9How is the man you love better than any other man, you most beautiful of women? How is he better than any other, that you make us promise such a thing?

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 charge us?

10The man I love is radiant and ruddy, standing out above ten thousand others.

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

NoteVerses 10 to 16 are a set poetic form: a head-to-foot catalogue praising the beloved's body part by part, of a kind found in ancient Egyptian and later Arabic wedding songs. The comparisons are to gold, ivory, jewels and marble, so the effect is of a costly statue rather than of a man described feature by feature realistically. "Radiant and ruddy" pairs a word for dazzling brightness with one for a reddish, healthy color; the same pair describes David when he is first seen. "Ten thousand" is a round poetic figure for an uncountable crowd, not a headcount.

11His head is the purest gold. His hair is wavy and as black as a raven.

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

12His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk and set in place like jewels.

12His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.

Note"Bathed in milk" describes the whites of the eyes; "set in place" uses the language of a gem seated in its mounting, so the eyes sit in the face like jewels in a setting. The picture behind it is of doves at the water's edge, pale birds against the stream.

13His cheeks are like beds of spices giving off perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.

13His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

NoteThe flower translated "lily" is uncertain; the Hebrew word covers several showy flowers and may mean a red one such as the anemone or a lotus, which would suit the comparison to lips better than the white garden lily.

14His hands are rods of gold set with beryl, a pale green stone. His belly is smooth ivory covered with sapphires.

14His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

NoteThe stone called "beryl" here is the Hebrew tarshish, named for a distant trading port; its identity is not certain, suggestions include yellow topaz, chrysolite and a pale green beryl. The "sapphires" are almost certainly lapis lazuli, an opaque deep-blue stone flecked with gold, imported from far to the east; the clear blue gem now called sapphire was not known in the region at this date. The word rendered "body" covers the torso, and the image is of a carved ivory panel inlaid with blue stones.

15His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. He looks like the mountains of Lebanon, as grand as their cedar trees.

15His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

NoteThe "bases" are the sockets or pedestals a column stands on, continuing the picture of a statue mounted on gold. Lebanon is the mountain range north of Israel, famous throughout the ancient world for its forests of enormous cedars, timber prized for palaces and temples, and a standard byword for height and grandeur.

16His mouth is sweetness itself. Everything about him is lovely. This is the man I love, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

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

NoteThe word translated "mouth" is literally the palate, and stands both for his kisses and for what he says. "Altogether lovely" means wholly desirable, every part of him. "My friend" translates a word for a close companion or confidant, set here deliberately alongside the language of desire.