Song of Songs · Catholic Public Domain Version
Song of Songs 5 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
1 Bride: May my beloved enter into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees.
1 I have come into my garden, my sister, 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. Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
2 Groom to Bride: I have arrived in my garden, O my sister, my spouse. I have harvested my myrrh, with my aromatic oils. I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, O most beloved.
2 I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
3 Bride: I sleep, yet my heart watches. The voice of my beloved knocking:
3 I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
4 Groom to Bride: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my immaculate one. For my head is full of dew, and the locks of my hair are full of the drops of the night.
4 My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him.
5 Bride: I have taken off my tunic; how shall I be clothed in it? I have washed my feet; how shall I spoil them?
5 I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
6 My beloved put his hand through the window, and my inner self was moved by his touch.
6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left, and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer.
7 I rose up in order to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the finest myrrh.
7 The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
8 I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved. But he had turned aside and had gone away. My soul melted when he spoke. I sought him, and did not find him. I called, and he did not answer me.
8 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love.
9 The keepers who circulate through the city found me. They struck me, and wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me.
9 How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us?
10 I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, announce to him that I languish through love.
10 My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand.
11 Chorus to Bride: What kind of beloved is your beloved, O most beautiful among women? What kind of beloved is your beloved, so that you would bind us by oath?
11 His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
12 Bride: My beloved is white and ruddy, elect among thousands.
12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
13 His head is like the finest gold. His locks are like the heights of palm trees, and as black as a raven.
13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
14 His eyes are like doves, which have been washed with milk over rivulets of waters, and which reside near plentiful streams.
14 His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
15 His cheeks are like a courtyard of aromatic plants, sown by perfumers. His lips are like lilies, dripping with the best myrrh.
15 His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16 His hands are smoothed gold, full of hyacinths. His abdomen is ivory, accented with sapphires.
16 His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
17 His legs are columns of marble, which have been established over bases of gold. His appearance is like that of Lebanon, elect like the cedars. His throat is most sweet, and he is entirely desirable. Such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Chorus to Bride: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? To where has your beloved turned aside, so that we may seek him with you?
17 Not in this translation
Cross references (16)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Song of Songs 6:2; Song of Songs 4:16; Revelation 22:17; Song of Songs 4:9–14; Isaiah 55:1–2
- 2 Revelation 3:20; Song of Songs 2:14; Song of Songs 6:9; Zechariah 4:1; Psalm 119:1
- 3 Luke 11:7; Romans 7:22–23; Proverbs 22:13; Matthew 26:38–43; Proverbs 3:28
- 4 Philippians 2:13; Song of Songs 1:4; Acts 16:14; 2 Corinthians 8:16; 1 Kings 3:26
- 5 Song of Songs 5:13; Ephesians 3:17; Song of Songs 4:13–14; Revelation 3:20; 2 Corinthians 7:9–11
- 6 Song of Songs 5:2; Revelation 3:19; Hosea 5:15; Hosea 5:6; Isaiah 58:2
- 7 Song of Songs 3:3; Matthew 23:2; Hosea 6:5; Psalm 141:5; John 16:2
- 8 Song of Songs 2:5; Song of Songs 2:7; Psalm 42:1–3; Song of Songs 3:5; Galatians 6:1–2
- 9 Song of Songs 6:1; Song of Songs 1:8; Song of Songs 6:9–10; Psalm 45:13; Isaiah 53:2
- 10 Psalm 45:2; Psalm 45:17; Song of Songs 2:1; Philippians 2:9–11; Hebrews 7:26
- 11 Song of Songs 7:5; Revelation 1:14; Song of Songs 5:2; Daniel 7:9; Ephesians 1:21–22
- 12 Song of Songs 4:1; Song of Songs 1:15; Hebrews 4:13
- 13 Song of Songs 1:10; Song of Songs 2:1; Song of Songs 6:2; Song of Songs 4:11; Psalm 89:15
- 14 Exodus 24:10; Isaiah 54:11; Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 52:13; Ezekiel 1:16
- 15 1 Kings 4:33; Revelation 1:15–16; Acts 2:28; Hosea 14:7; Psalm 92:12
- 16 Psalm 45:2; Song of Songs 7:9; Psalm 119:103; Galatians 2:20; Song of Songs 1:16
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse; (now in the place where He was crucified was a garden;) and what takest Thou thence?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Filled with these thoughts may you, even in sleep, enjoy the pleasure of the day, so that you may be permitted to say, "I sleep but my heart waketh," meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord, to Whom be glory and power world without end.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
… begotten, and for forgiveness of sins; even as it was emblematically foretold that Christ should be thus manifested in the appearance of His eyes; for in the Canticles she cries concerning the Bridegroom, and says, Thine eyes are as doves by the rivers of water.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)