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 sleep, but my heart waketh;

Hark! my beloved knocketh:

‘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.’

3I have put off my coat;

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 flowing myrrh,

Upon the handles of the bar.

6I opened to my beloved;

But my beloved had turned away, and was gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him, but I could not find him;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

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.

8‘I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

If ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him?

That I am love-sick.’

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,

Pre-eminent above ten thousand.

11His head is as the most fine gold,

His locks are curled,

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 with flowing myrrh.

14His hands are as rods of gold

Set with beryl;

His body is as polished ivory

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.’