Song of Solomon 4-5

Easy-to-Read Version

4 My darling, you are so beautiful!
    Oh, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are like doves
    under your veil.
Your hair is long and flowing,
    like little goats dancing down the slopes of Mount Gilead.
² Your teeth are white like ewes^[a]
    just coming from their bath.
They all give birth to twins;
    not one of them has lost a baby.
³ Your lips are like a red silk thread.
    Your mouth is beautiful.
Your cheeks under your veil
    are like two slices of pomegranate.
⁴ Your neck is long and thin
    like David’s tower.
That tower was built to be decorated^[b]
    with a thousand shields on its walls,
    with the shields of powerful soldiers.
⁵ Your breasts are like twin fawns,
    like twins of a gazelle,
    feeding among the lilies.
⁶ I will go to that mountain of myrrh
    and to that hill of frankincense
while the day breathes its last breath,
    and the shadows run away.
⁷ My darling, you are beautiful all over.
    Every part of you is perfect.
⁸ Come with me, my bride, from Lebanon.
    Come with me from Lebanon.
Come from the peak of Amana,^[c]
    from the top of Senir^[d] and Hermon,
    from the lion’s caves,
    from the mountain of the leopards.
⁹ My darling,^[e] my bride, you excite me!
    You have stolen my heart with just one quick look from your eyes,
    with just one of the jewels from your necklace.
¹⁰ Your love is so beautiful, my darling, my bride!
    Your love is better than wine.
The smell of your perfume
    is better than any kind of spice!
¹¹ My bride, your lips drip honey.
    Honey and milk are under your tongue.
Your clothes smell as sweet as perfume.^[f]
12 My darling, my bride,
    you are pure like a locked garden.
You are like a locked pool,
    a closed fountain.
¹³ Your limbs are like a garden
    filled with pomegranates and other pleasant fruit,
with all the best spices:
    henna,^[g]

Your limbs are like a garden
    filled with trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloe.
¹⁵ You are like a garden fountain—
    a well of fresh water—
    flowing down from the mountains of Lebanon.

¹⁶ Wake up, north wind.
    Come, south wind.
Blow on my garden.
    Spread its sweet smell.
Let my lover enter his garden
    and eat its pleasant fruit.

5 My darling my bride, I have entered my garden.
    I have gathered my myrrh and spice.
I have eaten my honey and honeycomb.
    I have drunk my wine and milk.

Dearest friends, eat, drink!
    Be drunk with love!

² I am asleep,
    but my heart is awake.
I hear my lover knocking, saying,
    “Open to me, my darling, my love,
    my dove, my perfect one!
My head is soaked with dew.
    My hair is wet with the mist of the night.”

⁹ Beautiful woman,
    how is your lover different from other lovers?
Is your lover better than other lovers?
    Is that why you ask us to make this promise?

¹⁰ My lover is tanned and radiant.
    He would stand out among 10,000 men.
¹¹ His head is like the purest gold.
    His hair is curly and as black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves by a stream,
    like doves in a pool of milk,
    like a jewel in its setting.
¹³ His cheeks are like a garden of spices,
    like flowers used for perfume.
His lips are like lilies,
    dripping with liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His arms are like gold rods,
    filled with jewels.
His body is like smooth ivory
    with sapphires set in it.
¹⁵ His legs are like marble pillars
    on bases of fine gold.
He stands tall
    like the finest cedar tree in Lebanon!
¹⁶ Yes, women of Jerusalem, my lover is everything I desire.
    His mouth is the sweetest of all.
This is my lover;
    this is my darling.