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¹ I have come into My garden, My sister, My spouse; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice. I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk. Eat and drink, O friends; yea, drink fully, beloved ones.

² I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the sound of my Beloved that knocks, saying , Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled. For My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.³ I have stripped off My coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed My feet; how shall I soil them?⁴ My Beloved sent His hand from the opening, and my inner being sighed for Him.⁵ I rose up to open to my Beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh; yea, my fingers flowing with myrrh on the handles of the bolt.⁶ I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had left; He passed on. My soul went out when He spoke; I sought Him, but I could not find Him. I called Him, but He did not answer me.⁷ The ones watching who went about the city found me and struck me; they wounded me; those keeping the walls lifted my veil from me.⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, what do you tell Him? That I am sick with love.

⁹ What is your Beloved more than another beloved, most beautiful among women? What is your Beloved more than another beloved, that you adjure us so?¹⁰ My Beloved is bright and ruddy, standing out among ten thousand.¹¹ His head is like refined gold; His locks are bushy and black as a raven.¹² His eyes are as the eyes of doves on the rivers of waters, washed with milk, sitting on a setting.¹³ His cheeks are like a bed of spices, a raised bed of aromatic herbs. His lips are like lilies dropping flowing myrrh.¹⁴ His hands are like rings of gold filled with jewels; His body an ivory plate overlaid with sapphires.¹⁵ His legs are like pillars of marble founded on bases of fine gold; His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.¹⁶ His mouth is most sweet, and He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.