Song of Solomon Chapter 5
The bride hesitates to answer her beloved's knock, then describes him head to foot.
Continuing from the beloved's praise in Song of Solomon 4, the bride hears her beloved knocking at night but delays too long, and by the time she opens the door he has withdrawn and gone. Read the full King James text of Song of Solomon 5 below.
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. 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.
I was asleep, but my heart awoke. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.
I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands drops with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.
The watchmen who go about the city found me. They smote me, they wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick from love.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou do so adjure us?
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand.
His head is the most fine gold. His locks are bushy, black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, washed with milk, fitly set.
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, banks of sweet herbs. His lips are lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
His hands are rings of gold set with beryl. His body is ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold. His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
His mouth is most sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.