Songofsolomon 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Traditionally the reign of Solomon, around 970 to 930 BC
Location
A house in Jerusalem at night, then the city streets and walls
Audience
Ancient Israelites, who read and sang this as love poetry belonging to their sacred writings
Situation
The woman dreams that her beloved knocks at her door in the night, and by the time she opens it he has gone. She searches the city, is beaten by the watchmen, and then answers the court women with a head-to-toe description of how beautiful he is.
Key Background
Door bolts in this period were wooden bars slid through sockets and worked with a hand-sized key through an opening, which is why the scene turns on hands, the bolt, and dripping myrrh at the latch. Night dew soaking a man's hair fits a climate where clear nights leave heavy moisture, marking how long he has waited. Here the praise poem runs the other direction, with a woman describing a man's body in the same detailed style, which is unusual in ancient love poetry and gives her voice equal weight in the book.
I have come into my my sister, my bride — I have gathered my with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends — drink! Drink of
I was asleep, but my was — A sound! My love is knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my — my head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night."
"I have taken off my — must I put it on again? I have my — must I get them dirty again?"
My lover through the opening, and my lower for
I rose to open for my love, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with myrrh on the handles of the bolt.
I opened for my love, but my love had turned and gone. My out when he spoke — I searched for him but could not find him, I called for him but he did not answer.
The found me as they made their rounds through the city. They beat me, they bruised me, they stripped my from me — those guardians of the walls.
I charge you, of — if you find my love, what will you tell him? Tell him I am with
What makes your love better than any other, you most of women? What makes your love better than any other, that you charge us like this?
My love is and ruddy, standing out
His head is gold, his locks are wavy, black as a
His eyes are like doves beside of water, bathed in milk, perched by a brimming pool.
His cheeks are like of spices, towers of fragrant herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
His are cylinders of gold set with jewels. His is a plate of ivory sheathed in sapphires.
His are marble pillars set on pedestals of finest gold. His presence is like Lebanon, majestic as its cedars.
His mouth is itself, and is desire. This is my love, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.