The Bride and Her Beloved The Bridegroom 1 UDB You who are most dear to me, I have come to be next to you. It will be as though I am gathering myrrh with my other spices, eating my honey and honeycomb, and drinking my wine and my milk. Friends, enjoy making love; fully enjoy all that you do with each other. BSB BSB: I 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.
The Friends The Bride 2 UDB I was asleep, and I had a dream. In it I heard my lover knocking at the door. He said, "You who are dearer to me than my sister, my darling, my dear friend, my perfect one, my dove, open the door for me! My hair is wet from the dew, from the mist that has fallen during the night." BSB BSB: I 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.”
3 UDB But I had already taken off my robe; I did not want to put it on again to open the door. I had already washed my feet; I did not want them to get dirty again. BSB BSB: I have taken off my robe—must I put it back on? I have washed my feet—must I soil them again?
4 UDB The one who loves me put his hand through the opening in the door, and I was thrilled in my inner being that he was there. BSB BSB: My beloved put his hand to the latch; my heart pounded for him.
5 UDB I got up to open the door for him, but first I put a lot of myrrh on my hands. It was dripping from my fingers while I unlatched the bolt. BSB BSB: I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.
6 UDB I opened the door for the man who loves me, but he left. He had turned away and was gone! I was very disappointed. I searched for him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he did not answer. BSB BSB: I 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.
7 UDB The city watchmen saw me while they were walking around the city. They beat me and wounded me because they thought I was a prostitute; those men who were guarding the city walls took my robe. BSB BSB: I 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.
8 UDB You young women of Jerusalem, I want you to take an oath that if you see the man who loves me, you will tell him that I want him so much that I feel sick. BSB BSB: O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.
The Friends 9 UDB You who are the fairest among women, why do you think that the one who loves you is better than other men? In what way is he better than other men? Why do you want us to swear that we will tell him that? BSB BSB: How is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you charge us so?
The Bride 10 UDB It is because the man who loves me is handsome and healthy, outstanding among other men. BSB BSB: My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.
11 UDB His head is beautiful, like purest gold; his hair is wavy and as black as a raven. BSB BSB: His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
12 UDB His eyes as gentle as doves along the streams; the white parts of his eyes are as white as milk, with what resembles jewels inlaid in them. BSB BSB: His eyes are like doves beside the streams of water, bathed in milk and mounted like jewels.
13 UDB His cheeks are like a garden full of spice trees that produce sweet-smelling perfume. His lips are like lilies that have myrrh dripping from them. BSB BSB: His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.
14 UDB His arms are like gold rods that have rounded ends, and that are decorated with precious stones. His body is like ivory that is decorated with sapphires. BSB BSB: His arms are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is polished ivory bedecked with sapphires.
15 UDB His legs are like marble columns that are set in bases made of pure gold. He is majestic, like the mountains of Lebanon, like delightful cedar trees. BSB BSB: His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, as majestic as the cedars.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.