Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding

¹ I have come to my garden, my sister 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 and become drunk with love⌟!¹

1. Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”

² I was asleep but¹ my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking!² “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⌟.”³

1. Or “and”
2. Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
3. Literally “my locks with drops of night”

³ I have taken off my tunic, ⌞must I put it on⌟?¹ I have bathed my feet, ⌞must I soil them⌟?²

1. Literally “How will I put it on?”
2. Literally “How will I soil them?”

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;¹ my heart sank² when he turned away.³ I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.

1. Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”
2. Or “my soul left”
3. 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

Adjuration Refrain

⁷ The sentinels making rounds in the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took my cloak¹ away from me— ⌞those sentinels on the walls⌟!²

1. Or “mantle”
2. Literally “the sentinels of the walls”

Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved

⁸ I adjure you, ⌞O maidens of Jerusalem⌟,¹ if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am ⌞lovesick⌟!²

1. Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
2. Literally “sick with love”

⁹ ⌞How is your beloved better than another lover⌟,¹ O most beautiful among women? ⌞How is your beloved better than another lover⌟,² that you adjure us thus?

1. Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
2. Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”

¹⁰ My beloved is radiant and ⌞ruddy⌟,¹ distinguished ⌞among⌟² ten thousand.

1. Literally “red”
2. Literally “more than”

¹¹ His head is gold, refined gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.

¹² His eyes are like doves beside springs¹ of water, bathed in milk, ⌞set like mounted jewels⌟.²³

1. Or “streams”
2. Literally “dwelling in a setting”
3. Or “seated at a suitable mounting”

¹³ His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances; his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴ His arms are ⌞rods⌟¹² of gold ⌞engraved with⌟³ jewels; his belly⁴ is polished ivory covered with sapphires.⁵

1. Literally “cylinders”
2. Or “rings”
3. Literally “filled with”
4. Or “body”
5. Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”

¹⁵ His legs are columns of alabaster,¹ set on bases of gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as ⌞its cedars⌟.²

1. Or “marble”
2. Literally “the cedars”

¹⁶ ⌞His mouth⌟¹ is sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved; this is my friend, ⌞O young women of Jerusalem⌟.²

1. Or “his palate”
2. Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”