1 I AM come into my garden, my sister, {cf15i 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.
2 I was asleep, but my heart waked: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, {cf15i 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.
3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole {cf15i of the door}, and my heart was moved for him.
5 I 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.
6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, {cf15i and} was gone.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.
7 The 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, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
9 What is thy beloved more than {cf15i another} beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than {cf15i another} beloved, that thou dost so adjure us?
10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
11 His head is {cf15i as} the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, {cf15i and} black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks; washed with milk, {cf15i and} fitly set.
13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs: his lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
14 His hands are {cf15i as} rings of gold set with beryl: his body is {cf15i as} ivory work overlaid {cf15i with} sapphires.
15 His legs are {cf15i as} pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.