1 I have come to my garden, my sister-spouse, || I have plucked my myrrh with my spice, || I have eaten my comb with my honey, || I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, || Indeed, drink abundantly, O beloved ones! 2 I am sleeping, but my heart wakes: The sound of my beloved knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my friend, || My dove, my perfect one, || For my head is filled [with] dew, || My locks [with] drops of the night.” 3 I have put off my coat, how do I put it on? I have washed my feet, how do I defile them? 4 My beloved sent his hand from the network, || And my bowels were moved for him. 5 I rose to open to my beloved, || And my hands dripped myrrh, || Indeed, my fingers were flowing [with] myrrh, || On the handles of the lock. 6 I opened to my beloved, || But my beloved withdrew—he passed on, || My soul went forth when he spoke, I sought him, and did not find him. I called him, and he did not answer me. 7 The watchmen who go around the city, || Found me, struck me, wounded me, || Keepers of the walls lifted up my veil from off me. 8 I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, || If you find my beloved—What do you tell him? That I [am] sick with love! 9 What [is] your beloved above [any] beloved, || O beautiful among women? What [is] your beloved above [any] beloved, || That thus you have adjured us? 10 My beloved [is] clear and ruddy, || Conspicuous above a myriad! 11 His head [is] pure gold—fine gold, || His locks flowing, dark as a raven, 12 His eyes as doves by streams of water, || Washing in milk, sitting in fullness. 13 His cheeks [are] as a bed of the spice, towers of perfumes, || His lips—lilies, dripping [and] flowing [with] myrrh, 14 His hands rings of gold, set with beryl, || His heart bright ivory, covered with sapphires, 15 His limbs pillars of marble, || Founded on sockets of fine gold, || His appearance as Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 16 His mouth is sweetness—and all of him desirable, || This [is] my beloved, and this my friend, || O daughters of Jerusalem!
Song of Songs · Literal Standard Version
Song of Songs 5 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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)