Song of Solomon 5
16 verses
The beloved invites the maiden to enter his garden and enjoy its fruits, which she accepts with delight, inviting him to drink and be intoxicated. The narrative shifts as the maiden dreams: she opens to her beloved but he has withdrawn; she searches the city and the watchmen strike her, removing her mantle, wounding her. She asks companions: tell my beloved I am lovesick. They ask what makes him special, and she responds with rapturous description: his head is purest gold, his hair black as ravens, his eyes like doves, his cheeks like beds of spices, his lips like lilies dripping myrrh, his arms like rods of gold, his body like polished ivory, his legs like pillars of marble. She concludes: 'This is my beloved, and this is my friend.' This chapter introduces vulnerability, loss, and pain within love's narrative. The maiden's dream and violent search foreground the anxiety of separation and the physical anguish longing can produce. Yet her elaborate celebration of the beloved—mirroring his earlier praise of her—establishes mutual vulnerability and admiration. Literarily, the gendered reversal of the extended erotic description—with the maiden praising the beloved's body in detail—grants her equal voice and desire. Theologically, the passage suggests that covenant love involves both joy and suffering; separation tests the depth of commitment, while praise and affirmation sustain the beloved relationship through trial.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
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.
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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.
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3
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
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4
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
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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.
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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.
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Their context of persecution gives these words a weight we often miss.. When we read this alongside the surrounding chap...
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.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. ...
8
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
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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?
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10
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. My grandmother used to quote this verse ...
11
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
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God is faithful in every circumstance.. We bring nothing; He provides everything.. Following God is costly, but the rewa...
12
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
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13
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
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14
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
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15
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
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16
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
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