In The Garden Of Love

Song of Solomon 5

        ¹     I am 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, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

      ²     I sleep, but my heart waketh:

            It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,

            Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled:

            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 hole of the door,

            And my bowels were moved for him.

      ⁵     I rose up to open to my beloved;

            And my hands dropped with myrrh,

            And my fingers with sweet smelling 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            But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: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 spake:

            I sought him, but I could not find him;

            I called him, but he gave me no answer.

      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 charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

            If ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,

            That I am sick of love.

      ⁹     What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
O thou fairest among women?

            What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
that thou dost so charge us?

      ¹⁰   My beloved is white and ruddy,

            The chiefest among ten thousand.

      ¹¹   His head is as the most fine gold,

            His locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

      ¹²   His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters,

            Washed with milk, and fitly set.

      ¹³   His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers:

            His lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

      ¹⁴   His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl:

            His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

      ¹⁵   His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold:

            His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

      ¹⁶   His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely.

            This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.