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¹ I AM come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spices, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O my friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O my beloved.

² I slept, but my heart was awake; it is the voice of my beloved who is knocking, saying, Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my harmless dove; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.³ I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?⁴ My beloved put in his hand by the opening of the door, and my heart was moved for him.⁵ I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped myrrh, yea, and my fingers dropped myrrh upon the handles of the lock.⁶ I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone; my soul failed when he spoke; then I sought him but I could not find him; I called him but he did not answer me.⁷ The watchmen that went about the city found me; they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my beloved, tell him that I am sick for love.

⁹ What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you so adjure us?¹⁰ My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.¹¹ His head is like the finest gold, his locks straight and black as a raven.¹² His eyes are like the eyes of doves by brooks of water, washed with milk and fitly set.¹³ His cheeks are like beds of spices, like sweet flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping myrrh and spikenard.¹⁴ His hands are like golden girdles studded with precious stones; his belly is like a work of ivory overlaid with sapphires.¹⁵ His legs are like pillars of marble set upon bases of gold; his chest is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.¹⁶ His mouth is like sweet honeycombs; his garments are lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.