LEB SNG chapter 5

Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding

2 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,
- [fn]
- 3 [fn] I have bathed my feet,[fn]
- 4  and my inmost yearned for him.
- 5  my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
- upon the handles of the bolt.
- 6  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  they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloak[fn] away from me—
- [fn]

Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved

9 [fn] O most beautiful among women?

[fn]
- that you adjure us thus?
- 10 is radiant and[fn] distinguished[fn] ten thousand.
- 11 is gold, refined gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
- 12 are like doves beside springs[fn] of water, bathed in milk,[fn][fn]
- 13 are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances; his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
- 14 are[fn][fn] of gold [fn] jewels; his belly[fn] is polished ivory covered with sapphires.[fn]
- 15 are columns of alabaster,[fn] set on bases of gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as[fn]
- 16 [fn] is sweet, and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
- this is my friend,[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