Song of Solomon 5
The full text of Song of Solomon 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 [He] I came to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I ate my honeycomb with my honey,
I drank my wine with my milk.
[Friends] Eat, friends; drink,
and be drunk with love!
2 [She] I slept, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved is knocking:
'Open to me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.'
3 I had put off my garment;
how could I put it on?
I had bathed my feet;
how could I soil them?
4 My beloved put his hand to the latch,
and my heart was thrilled for him.
5 I arose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
upon the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
My heart failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
7 The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city;
they beat me, they bruised me,
they took away my veil,
those watchmen of the walls.
8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
that you tell him I am faint with love.
9 [Friends] What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O fairest among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
that you so adjure us?
10 [She] My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
distinguished among ten thousand.
11 His head is the finest gold;
his locks are wavy,
black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
bathed in milk,
sitting beside a full pool.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold
set with jewels.
His body is polished ivory,
overlaid with sapphires.
15 His legs are alabaster columns
set on bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
choice as the cedars.
16 His mouth is most sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
Translation notes (5)
- Song of Solomon 5:1a The Hebrew supplies no speaker labels; the bracketed attributions here are editorial. The closing invitation is assigned by some interpreters to the bridegroom addressing the wedding guests and by others to the guests blessing the couple. The final words, shikhru dodim (שִׁכְרוּ דּוֹדִים), may also be read vocatively as 'be drunk, O lovers'.
- Song of Solomon 5:4a Hebrew has literally "my beloved sent his hand through the opening," chor ('hole') referring to an aperture in the door. The response, me'ay hamu ('my inward parts churned'), locates emotion in the viscera, as Hebrew idiom regularly does; "heart" is an accommodation to English. The physical language carries an erotic charge that many interpreters find deliberate.
- Song of Solomon 5:7a Watchmen patrolled the streets and walls of ancient Near Eastern cities by night, and a woman abroad alone after dark could be seized as a suspected wrongdoer. In Song of Solomon 3:3 the same watchmen were harmless; here their violence marks the darker tone of this second night search. The Hebrew redid, 'veil', denotes a light outer wrap or mantle, mentioned elsewhere only in Isaiah 3:23.
- Song of Solomon 5:14a The Hebrew sappir (סַפִּיר) likely refers to lapis lazuli, the deep blue stone prized throughout the ancient Near East, rather than the modern sapphire, which was scarcely known before the Roman period. The word rendered 'body' is me'av, literally 'his belly' or 'abdomen', continuing the poem's description of the beloved as a crafted work of precious materials.
- Song of Solomon 5:16a Hebrew chikko mamtaqim, literally 'his palate is sweetness', an abstract plural of intensity. The climactic title rea (רֵעַ), 'friend', denotes a companion or intimate associate, the same word used of neighborly bonds elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible; the beloved is thus praised not only as an object of desire but as a covenant companion.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is a new translation of the Bible prepared by Trinity Bible — rendered from the original Hebrew and faithful to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. Finished in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation you can read today, and it is available only through Trinity Bible. All 66 books, including Song of Solomon, are free to read on this site.
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