LEB SNG chapter 5

Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding

2 I was asleep but[fn] my heart was awake.
- A sound! My beloved knocking![fn]
“Open to me, my sister, my beloved,
- my dove, my perfect one!
For my head is full of dew,
- my hair drenched from the moist night air .”[fn]
3 I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on ?[fn]
- I have bathed my feet, must I soil them ?[fn]
4 My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
- and my inmost yearned for him.
5 I myself arose to open to my beloved;
- my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
- upon the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened myself to my beloved,
- but my beloved had turned and gone;[fn]
my heart sank[fn] when he turned away.[fn]
I sought him, but I did not find him;
- I called him, but he did not answer me.
7 The sentinels making rounds in the city found me;
- they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloak[fn] away from me—
- those sentinels on the walls ![fn]

Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved

9 How is your beloved better than another lover ,[fn]
- O most beautiful among women?
How is your beloved better than another lover ,[fn]
- that you adjure us thus?
10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy ,[fn]
- distinguished among[fn] ten thousand.
11 His head is gold, refined gold;
- his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside springs[fn] of water,
- bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels .[fn][fn]
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances;
- his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods[fn][fn] of gold engraved with[fn] jewels;
- his belly[fn] is polished ivory covered with sapphires.[fn]
15 His legs are columns of alabaster,[fn] set on bases of gold;
- his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars .[fn]
16 His mouth[fn] is sweet,
- and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
- this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem .[fn]

5:? Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”

5:? Or “and”

5:? Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”

5:? Literally “my locks with drops of night”

5:? Literally “How will I put it on?”

5:? Literally “How will I soil them?”

5:? Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”

5:? Or “my soul left”

5:? Or “when he was speaking.” Translations equivocate on how to translate this verb, since there are two terms in Hebrew spelled identically: “to speak” and “to turn aside” (HALOT 1:210). The context suggests the latter

5:? Or “mantle”

5:? Literally “the sentinels of the walls”

5:? Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”

5:? Literally “sick with love”

5:? Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”

5:? Literally “red”

5:? Literally “more than”

5:? Or “streams”

5:? Literally “dwelling in a setting”

5:? Or “seated at a suitable mounting”

5:? Literally “cylinders”

5:? Or “rings”

5:? Literally “filled with”

5:? Or “body”

5:? Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”

5:? Or “marble”

5:? Literally “the cedars”

5:? Or “his palate”

5:? Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”

LEB SNG Chapter 5