5  I came to my ^pgarden, ^qmy sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my ^rhoney,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

2  I slept, but my heart was awake.

A sound! ^sMy beloved is knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, ^tmy love,

^umy dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”

3  I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

4  My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

5  I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

6  I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I ^vsought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

7  ^wThe watchmen found me

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they bruised me,

they took away my veil,

those watchmen of the walls.

8  I adjure you, O ^xdaughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

^yI am sick with love.

9  What is your beloved more than another beloved,

^zO most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

10  My beloved is radiant and ^aruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

11  His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

12  ^bHis eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.¹

13  His cheeks are like ^cbeds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

14  His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,²

bedecked with sapphires.³

15  His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

16  His ^dmouth⁴ is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

6  Where has your beloved gone,

^eO most beautiful among women?

Where has ^fyour beloved turned,

that we may ^gseek him with you?

2  My beloved has gone down to his ^hgarden

to the ⁱbeds of spices,

to graze¹ in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

3  ^jI am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;

he ^kgrazes among the lilies.

4  ^lYou are beautiful as ^mTirzah, ⁿmy love,

lovely as Jerusalem,

awesome as an army with banners.

5  Turn away your eyes from me,

for they overwhelm me—

^oYour hair is like a flock of goats

leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

6  ^pYour teeth are like a flock of ewes

that have come up from the washing;

all of them bear twins;

not one among them has lost its young.

7  ^qYour cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

8  There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and virgins without number.

9  ^rMy dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

the only one of her mother,

pure to her who bore her.

The young women saw her and called her blessed;

the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

10  “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,

beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,

awesome as an army with banners?”

11  I went down to the nut orchard

to look at the blossoms of the valley,

to ^ssee whether the vines had budded,

whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

12  Before I was aware, my desire set me

among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.²

13  ³ Return, return, O Shulammite,

return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,

as upon a dance before two armies?⁴

7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O noble daughter!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of a master hand.

2  Your navel is a rounded bowl

that never lacks mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

3  ^tYour two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

4  ^uYour neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

which looks toward Damascus.

5  Your head crowns you like Carmel,

and your flowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.

6  How beautiful and pleasant you are,

O loved one, with all your delights!¹

7  Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

8  I say I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its fruit.

Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

9  and your ^vmouth² like the best wine.

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding over lips and teeth.³

10  ^wI am my beloved’s,

and his desire is for me.

11  Come, my beloved,

let us go out into the fields

and lodge in the villages;⁴

12  let us go out early to the vineyards

and ^xsee whether the vines have budded,

whether the grape ^yblossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

13  The ^zmandrakes give forth fragrance,

and beside our doors are all ^achoice fruits,

new as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

8  Oh that you were like a brother to me

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outside, I would kiss you,

and none would despise me.

2  I would lead you and ^bbring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

3  ^cHis left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

4  ^dI adjure you, O ^edaughters of Jerusalem,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

5  ^fWho is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on ^gher beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.

There your mother was in labor with you;

there she who bore you was in labor.

6  Set me ^has a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy¹ is fierce as the grave.²

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the Lord.

7  Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he³ would be utterly despised.

8  We have a little sister,

and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister

on the day when she is spoken for?

9  If she is a wall,

we will build on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

10  I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds⁴ peace.

11  Solomon ⁱhad a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he let out the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12  ^jMy vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

13  O you who dwell in the gardens,

with ^kcompanions listening for your voice;

^llet me hear it.

14  Make haste, my beloved,

and be ^mlike a gazelle

or a young stag

on the ⁿmountains of spices.

2  ^gHear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:

^h“Children¹ have I reared and brought up,

but they have rebelled against me.

3  ⁱThe ox knows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib,

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand.”

4  Ah, sinful nation,

a people laden with iniquity,

^joffspring of evildoers,

children who deal corruptly!

They have ^kforsaken the Lord,

they have ^ldespised the Holy One of Israel,

they are utterly ^mestranged.

5  Why will you still be struck down?

Why will you continue to rebel?

The whole head is sick,

and the whole heart faint.

6  From the sole of the foot even to the head,

there is no soundness in it,

but bruises and sores

and raw wounds;

they are not pressed out or bound up

or softened with oil.

7  Your country lies desolate;

your cities are burned with fire;

in your very presence

foreigners devour your land;

it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

8  And the daughter of Zion is left

like a booth in a vineyard,

like a lodge in a cucumber field,

like a besieged city.

9  ⁿIf the Lord of hosts

had not left us a few survivors,

we should have been like ^oSodom,

and become like Gomorrah.

10  Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of ^pSodom!

Give ear to the teaching² of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

11  ^q“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of goats.

12  “When you come to ^rappear before me,

who has required of you

this trampling of my courts?

13  Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—

I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a ^sburden to me;

I am ^tweary of bearing them.

15  When you ^uspread out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

^vI will not listen;

your hands are full of blood.

16  ^wWash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

17  learn to do good;

seek justice,

correct oppression;

bring justice to the ^xfatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.

18  “Come now, let us reason³ together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as ^ywhite as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

19  ^zIf you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

20  but ^aif you refuse and rebel,

you shall be eaten by the sword;

^bfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

21  How the faithful city

has become a ^cwhore,⁴

she who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers.

22  Your silver has become ^ddross,

your best wine mixed with water.

23  ^eYour princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

24  Therefore the Lord declares,

the Lord of hosts,

^fthe Mighty One of Israel:

“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies

and avenge myself on my foes.

25  I will turn my hand against you

and will smelt away your dross as with lye

and remove all your alloy.

26  And I will restore your judges as at the first,

and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,

the faithful city.”

27  Zion shall be redeemed by justice,

and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28  But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29  For they⁵ shall be ashamed of the ^goaks

that you desired;

and you shall blush for the ^hgardens

that you have chosen.

30  For you shall be like an oak

whose leaf withers,

and like a garden without water.

31  And the strong shall become tinder,

and his work a spark,

and both of them shall burn together,

with none to quench them.