Song of Songs · 16 verses
Song of Songs 5
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
She takes so long deciding whether to put her robe back on that, by the time the beloved reaches the latch and she opens the door, he has vanished into the night.
The door and the watchmenvv. 1–8
The chapter begins in a garden rich enough to eat and drink: myrrh, spice, honey, wine, and milk, with friends invited to the feast. Then the beloved knocks while she lies sleeping but inwardly awake. Her hesitation is gloriously domestic—robe off, feet washed, reluctance to undo either achievement—yet the beloved's hand reaches the latch. At last she rises, her hands and fingers dripping with myrrh, and opens the door to an empty departure. The search runs into the watchmen, who beat and bruise her and remove her cloak; romance has acquired, rather abruptly, the administrative unpleasantness of a night patrol. She asks the daughters of Jerusalem to carry one message: she is sick with love.
A beloved assembled from splendoursvv. 9–16
The daughters of Jerusalem ask what makes this beloved better than another. The answer is not modest. He is dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand; his head is gold, his hair raven-black, his eyes doves by streams, and his cheeks beds of spice. Gold, beryl, ivory, sapphires, marble, and Lebanon's cedars are all summoned to the task. After this stately inventory, the final declaration is wonderfully plain: his mouth is sweet, he is altogether lovely, and he is both beloved and friend.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Song 5:1I have come to 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, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.
Song 5:2I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”
Song 5:3I have taken off my robe—must I put it back on? I have washed my feet—must I soil them again?
Song 5:4My beloved put his hand to the latch; my heart pounded for him.
Song 5:5I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.
Song 5:6I opened for my beloved, but he had turned and gone. My heart sank at his departure. I sought him but did not find him. I called, but he did not answer.
Song 5:7I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city. They beat me and bruised me; they took away my cloak, those guardians of the walls.
Song 5:8O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.
Song 5:9How is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you charge us so?
Song 5:10My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.
Song 5:11His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
Song 5:12His eyes are like doves beside the streams of water, bathed in milk and mounted like jewels.
Song 5:13His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
Song 5:14His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is polished ivory bedecked with sapphires.
Song 5:15His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, as majestic as the cedars.
Song 5:16His mouth is most sweet; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 254 passages were voted onto 16 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 1Song of Songs 6:2My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.
- 2Revelation 3:20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
- 1Song of Songs 4:16Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.
- 2Song of Songs 2:14O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.
- 7Song of Songs 3:3I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: “Have you seen the one I love?”
- 8Song of Songs 2:5Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
- 8Song of Songs 2:7O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.
- 1Revelation 22:17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.
- 5Song of Songs 5:13His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
- 6Song of Songs 5:2I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”
- 9Song of Songs 6:1Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.
- 9Song of Songs 1:8If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.
- 12Song of Songs 1:15How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.
- 12Song of Songs 4:1How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
- 13Song of Songs 1:10Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
- 1Proverbs 9:5“Come, eat my bread and drink the wine I have mixed.
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