Era 6 · The First KingsSong of Songs
Song of Songs 5: I Sleep, but My Heart Waketh
The garden entered, a knock in the night, the watchmen's violence, and "this is my friend"
"I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk" (5:1). Then, from somewhere: "eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." Who says it, the lovers to their friends, friends to the lovers, or the poet, is not marked.
"I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night" (v. 2). She answers lazily: "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" (v. 3). "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh… upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone" (vv. 4–6).
"I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me" (vv. 6–7). In chapter 3 the watchmen let her pass; now they beat and strip her. "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love" (v. 8).
"What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women?" (v. 9). She answers with the only praise poem spoken about a man: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters… His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble… his countenance is as Lebanon… His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem" (vv. 10–16).
Read 5:1–16 without labels: the garden entered, the invitation to eat and drink, the sleeper and the knock, the myrrh on the lock, the empty doorway, the search, the blows, the charge, the question, the praise.
The Hebrew has no speaker names. Readers work out who is speaking from the grammar, which marks gender in "you" and "my" forms and in many verbs.
| Lines | Proposed voice | Clue in the Hebrew |
|---|---|---|
| 5:1a | The man | "My sister, my bride" (feminine); "my garden" answering 4:16. |
| 5:1b | Unclear: the poet, a chorus, or the lovers | Plural imperatives to "friends" and "lovers" (dodim). |
| 5:2–8 | The woman (quoting the man in v. 2) | First-person feminine (yeshenah, "sleeping"); "open to me, my sister" is his speech. |
| 5:9 | The daughters of Jerusalem | They address "fairest among women." |
| 5:10–16 | The woman | "My beloved" (masculine) described in the third person; addresses the daughters. |
These labels are the site's editorial suggestion, following the grammar where it is clear. Where the grammar is not clear, the label says so. No ancient Hebrew manuscript carries them.
| Verses | What it says | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| 5:1 | I came into my garden: myrrh, honey, wine, milk; eat, friends, drink | Answers 4:16. Speaker of 1b unclear. |
| 5:2 | I sleep but my heart is awake; he knocks, wet with dew: open to me | "My undefiled" (tammati, "my perfect one"). |
| 5:3 | I have taken off my robe… washed my feet | Her reluctance; possibly playful. |
| 5:4–5 | His hand through the opening; she is stirred; she rises, hands dripping myrrh on the lock | Sensual imagery; the Hebrew is suggestive and the lesson does not erase it. |
| 5:6 | She opens; he is gone; she seeks and calls; no answer | "My soul failed when he spake" (or "went out when he turned"). |
| 5:7 | The watchmen strike, wound and strip her of her cloak (redid) | Violence by those meant to protect. Compare 3:3. |
| 5:8 | Charge to the daughters: tell him I am lovesick | A variation of the refrain. |
| 5:9 | The daughters: what is your beloved more than another? | A question that invites praise. |
| 5:10–12 | White and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand; head of gold; black curls; dove eyes by streams | The only wasf of a male body in the Song. |
| 5:13–15 | Cheeks like spice beds; lips like lilies dripping myrrh; arms of gold set with tarshish; body of ivory with sapphires; legs of alabaster on gold bases; appearance like Lebanon | Gems and precious materials: like a statue of gold and ivory. |
| 5:16 | His mouth is sweetness; altogether desirable: this is my beloved, this is my friend | Re'a, "friend, companion": love and friendship joined. |
The watchmen's violence
City watchmen guarded walls and gates at night (2 Samuel 18:24–27; Isaiah 21:11–12; Psalm 127:1). In 3:3 they let the woman pass; in 5:7 they beat her, wound her and take her redid, a light outer garment or veil (Isaiah 3:23). The text does not explain why: perhaps they took her for a prostitute because she was alone in the street at night, perhaps the scene is a nightmare. Either way, it records abuse by those with public power over a woman, without excusing it. Readers should not soften it into a mere metaphor or turn it into a lesson that she was punished for seeking love.
Gold, ivory and gems
Her description of him (vv. 14–15) resembles a precious statue: gold head and arms, ivory body, alabaster (or marble) legs on gold pedestals. Egyptian and Near Eastern statues of gods and kings were made of such materials; ivory carvings from Samaria and Nimrud show the craft. Tarshish (v. 14) is an unidentified gem (beryl, topaz, chrysolite are guesses, named after a far-off place); sappir is probably lapis lazuli, the deep blue stone imported from Afghanistan, rather than the modern sapphire. Modern gem names are approximations.
As love poetry, the chapter dramatizes missed timing and longing: the lover comes when she is not ready, and when she is ready he is gone. Her praise of him (vv. 10–16) answers the man's praise of her in chapter 4; the Song gives the woman equal power to desire and to describe. "This is my friend" (v. 16) is one of the tenderest lines in the Bible.
The night door, the lover outside, and the lover's withdrawal appear in Egyptian love songs and later in Greek poetry (the paraclausithyron, the lover's song at a closed door, is a Greek and Latin genre). The violent watchmen have no clear parallel; they belong to the Song's own drama.
Song of Songs Rabbah reads "I sleep, but my heart waketh" as Israel: "I sleep" from the commandments, "but my heart" (God, the heart of Israel) is awake; the knock is God's call to repentance. The Targum reads the passage of Israel's sin and the exile, with the watchmen as the Babylonian invaders.
Christian mystics from Gregory of Nyssa to John of the Cross read 5:2 as contemplative prayer: the body at rest, the heart awake to God. The beloved's withdrawal was read as the "absence" the soul experiences in spiritual life (Bernard, and later John of the Cross's Spiritual Canticle). The watchmen were sometimes read as church leaders who wound the seeking soul.
5:4–5: how much is euphemism?
"My beloved put in his hand by the hole (min ha-chor)… my bowels (me'ay, inner parts) were moved for him" (v. 4). Some scholars read sexual double meanings ("hand" and "hole" can be euphemisms in Hebrew); others read a literal door with a keyhole. Myrrh on the handles of the lock (v. 5) may be her perfume or his. The poem is deliberately suggestive and also literally coherent; both levels are part of its art. The site neither erases the sensual sense nor over-specifies it.
"Chiefest among ten thousand" and later hymnody
"The chiefest among ten thousand" (dagul me-revavah, "distinguished among a myriad") and "altogether lovely" (5:10, 16) became Christian titles for Christ in hymns and preaching. In the poem, the woman speaks of her human beloved.
What the evidence shows
- In 5:7 the watchmen beat and strip the woman.
- Sappir (5:14) is the modern sapphire. Probably lapis lazuli.
- 5:10–16 is the only praise poem of a male body in the Song.
- Song of Songs Rabbah reads 5:2 of Israel and God. C check.Source: Song of Songs Rabbah (midrash; usually dated to the 6th century)
Continue the journey
Journey of a PassageSong of Songs 5:2–8: "I sleep, but my heart waketh": the knock and the watchmenShe sleeps, her heart awake; her beloved knocks, wet with dew; she hesitates; she opens, her hands dripping myrrh on the lock; he has gone.More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- The earlier night search, where the watchmen do no harm.
- "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock": often read with 5:2.
- Redidim, women's veils or wraps.
- Solomon's throne of ivory overlaid with gold.
- "A paved work of a sapphire stone": sappir as deep blue.