Bible in a Year · Day 219 of 365
Today’s reading: Song of Solomon 5–7 (3 chapters)
Read the passage below, or open your own Bible and follow along. The text here is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, printed in full so the day’s reading is all on one page.
About Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is a poem about love between a woman and a man, and it is unlike anything else in the Bible. The language is physical and unembarrassed, full of vineyards, doves, spices, and gardens, and it does not moralise at the end. Readers have taken it as a picture of God's love for his people, and there is an old tradition of reading it that way, but the plain sense is a celebration of married desire. In a canon full of law and prophecy it makes a quiet point: the love of a man and a woman is good, and it belongs in poetry as much as in a proverb.
What to watch for. Watch who speaks in each section, because the poem moves between voices without much introduction. Notice how often the beloved is described by the other and how little the poem needs to explain itself.
Song of Solomon 5
1I 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, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved. 2I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.” 3I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them? 4My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him. 5I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
6I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer. 7The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. 8I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love. 9How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us? 10My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand.
11His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven. 12His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels. 13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. 14His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires. 15His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon 6
1Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? 2My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 3I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He browses among the lilies, 4You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. 5Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, that lie along the side of Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, which have come up from the washing; of which every one has twins; no one is bereaved among them. 7Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil. 8There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number. 9My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed; the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. 10Who is she who looks out as the morning, beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners?
11I went down into the nut tree grove, to see the green plants of the valley, to see whether the vine budded, and the pomegranates were in flower. 12Without realizing it, my desire set me with my royal people’s chariots. 13Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?
Song of Solomon 7
1How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. 2Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. 3Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe. 4Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus. 5Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.
6How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights! 7This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit. 8I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.” Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples, 9Your mouth like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep. 10I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me.
11Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field. Let us lodge in the villages. 12Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love. 13The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Next · Day 220: Song of Solomon 8 – Isaiah 3 →
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public-domain translation. Day numbering follows the calendar year; you can start at Day 1 on any date.
