Book Order Plan

¹I have come to my garden — my sister, my bride. I gather my myrrh with my spices. I eat my honeycomb with my honey. I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with caresses!

²I was sleeping, but my heart was awake. A sound! My love was knocking! Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my hair with droplets of the night.

³I have taken off my clothing. How can I put it back on? I have washed my feet. How can I get them dirty?

⁴My love thrust his hand through the opening, and my feelings were stirred for him.

⁵I rose to open for my love. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened to my love, but my love had turned and gone away. My heart sank because he had left. I sought him, but did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer.

⁷The guards who go about the city found me. They beat and wounded me; they took my cloak from me — the guardians of the walls.

⁸Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, if you find my love, tell him that I am lovesick.

⁹What makes the one you love better than another, most beautiful of women? What makes him better than another, that you would give us this charge?

¹⁰My love is fit and strong, notable among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is purest gold. His hair is wavy and black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves beside flowing streams, washed in milk and set like jewels.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spice, mounds of perfume. His lips are lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is an ivory panel covered with lapis lazuli.

¹⁵His legs are alabaster pillars set on pedestals of pure gold. His presence is like Lebanon, as majestic as the cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is sweetness. He is absolutely desirable. This is my love, and this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem.

¹Where has your love gone, most beautiful of women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.

²My love has gone down to his garden, to beds of spice, to feed in the gardens and gather lilies.

³I am my love’s and my love is mine; he feeds among the lilies.

⁴You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, lovely as Jerusalem, awe-inspiring as an army with banners.

⁵Turn your eyes away from me, for they captivate me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming up from washing, each one having a twin, and not one missing.

⁷Behind your veil, your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and young women without number.

⁹But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique; she is the favorite of her mother, perfect to the one who gave her birth. Women see her and declare her fortunate; queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:

¹⁰Who is this who shines like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awe-inspiring as an army with banners?

¹¹I came down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranates blooming.

¹²I didn’t know what was happening to me. I felt like I was in a chariot with a nobleman.

¹³Come back, come back, Shulammite! Come back, come back, that we may look at you! How you gaze at the Shulammite, as you look at the dance of the two camps!

¹How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess! The curves of your thighs are like jewelry, the handiwork of a master.

²Your navel is a rounded bowl; it never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a mound of wheat surrounded by lilies.

³Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

⁴Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like pools in Heshbon by Bath-rabbim’s gate. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus.

⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple cloth — a king could be held captive in your tresses.

⁶How beautiful you are and how pleasant, my love, with such delights!

⁷Your stature is like a palm tree; your breasts are clusters of fruit.

⁸I said, “I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.

⁹Your mouth is like fine wine  — flowing smoothly for my love, gliding past my lips and teeth!

¹⁰I am my love’s, and his desire is for me.

¹¹Come, my love, let’s go to the field; let’s spend the night among the henna blossoms.

¹²Let’s go early to the vineyards; let’s see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my caresses.

¹³The mandrakes give off a fragrance, and at our doors is every delicacy, both new and old. I have treasured them up for you, my love.

¹If only I could treat you like my brother, one who nursed at my mother’s breasts, I would find you in public and kiss you, and no one would scorn me.

²I would lead you, I would take you, to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranate.

³May his left hand be under my head, and his right arm embrace me.

⁴Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

⁵Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the one she loves? I awakened you under the apricot tree. There your mother conceived you; there she conceived and gave you birth.

⁶Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; jealousy is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love’s flames are fiery flames  — an almighty flame!

⁷A huge torrent cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned.

⁸Our sister is young; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall, we will build a silver barricade on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with cedar planks.

¹⁰I am a wall and my breasts like towers. So in his eyes I have become like one who finds peace.

¹¹Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased the vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for his fruit one thousand pieces of silver.

¹²I have my own vineyard. The one thousand are for you, Solomon, but two hundred for those who take care of its fruits.

¹³You who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice; let me hear you!

¹⁴Run away with me, my love, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.