✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Cânticos 5

ARC · Chapter 5/8

1Já vim para o meu jardim, irmã minha, ó esposa: colhi a minha myrrha com a minha especiaria, comi o meu favo com o meu mel, bebi o meu vinho com o meu leite: comei, amigos, bebei, ó amados, e embriagae-vos.

2Eu estava dormindo, mas o meu coração vigiava: eis a voz do meu amado que estava batendo: abre-me, irmã minha, amiga minha, pomba minha, perfeita minha, porque a minha cabeça está cheia d'orvalho, as minhas guedelhas das gottas da noite;

3Já despi os meus vestidos; como os tornarei a vestir? já lavei os meus pés; como os tornarei a sujar?

4O meu amado metteu a sua mão pelo buraco da porta, e as minhas entranhas estremeceram por amor d'elle.

5Eu me levantei para abrir ao meu amado, e as minhas mãos distillavam myrrha, e os meus dedos gottejavam myrrha sobre as aldrabas da fechadura.

6Eu abri ao meu amado, mas já o meu amado se tinha retirado, e tinha ido: a minha alma se derreteu quando elle fallou; busquei-o e não o achei, chamei-o, e não me respondeu.

7Acharam-me os guardas que rondavam pela cidade: espancaram-me, feriram-me, tiraram-me o meu véu os guardas dos muros.

8Conjuro-vos, ó filhas de Jerusalem, que, se achardes o meu amado, lhe digaes que estou enferma de amor.

9Que é o teu amado mais do que outro amado, ó tu, a mais formosa entre as mulheres? que é o teu amado mais do que outro amado, que tanto nos conjuraste?

10O meu amado é candido e rubicundo; elle traz a bandeira entre dez mil.

11A sua cabeça é como o oiro mais apurado, as suas guedelhas crespas, pretas como o corvo.

12Os seus olhos são como os das pombas junto ás correntes das aguas, lavados em leite, postos em engaste.

13As suas faces são como um canteiro de especiaria, como caixas aromaticas; os seus labios são como lyrios que gottejam myrrha distillante.

14As suas mãos como anneis d'oiro que teem engastadas as turquezas: o seu ventre como alvo marfim, coberto de saphiras.

15As suas pernas como columnas de marmore, fundadas sobre bases de oiro puro; o seu parecer como o Libano, excellente como os cedros.

16O seu fallar é muitissimo suave, e todo elle totalmente desejavel. Tal é o meu amado, e tal o meu amigo, ó filhas de Jerusalem.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The lover arrives at the beloved's door, but she is slow to open it, and by the time she does, he is gone. She goes out searching for him through the city and is mistreated by the watchmen. She then describes his physical beauty in detail to the daughters of Jerusalem.

Explanation

This passage portrays a moment of temporary loss and searching, an emotional pattern common in relationships: misunderstanding, hesitation, and the fear that love has slipped away. The hostile response of the watchmen shows the real dangers a woman faced going out alone at night in ancient society. Notably, here it is the woman who praises the man's body, something rare in ancient literature, showing that the Song treats female desire with the same dignity as male desire. Application for today: honest communication about feelings keeps small misunderstandings from growing into great distances in a relationship.

Fun facts

  • The description of the lover as having a "head of finest gold" and "legs like pillars of marble" follows the same poetic pattern used to describe idols and royal statues in ancient Near Eastern literature, signaling magnificence.
  • This is one of the few biblical texts in which a woman openly praises a man's physical beauty, a point noted by commentators as a sign of the mutuality of love in the book.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Cânticos 5:1The closing invitation to “eat, and drink abundantly” seems to include the couple’s friends celebrating along with them, as if this scene of intimacy ended up turning into a shared celebration, not just a private moment.
  2. Cânticos 5:2The scene where the beloved knocks at the door at night, she hesitates to open it, and by the time she finally does he is already gone, repeats the theme of searching and missed connection already seen earlier in the book, showing love’s more painful side.
  3. Cânticos 5:3Her excuses for not getting up right away, already undressed and with her feet washed, sound like lazy hesitation that she herself will bitterly regret as soon as he is gone.
  4. Cânticos 5:4The door with a hole or gap for a hand to reach through was a common architectural detail in ancient houses — his gesture of trying to open it that way is a quiet, intimate request for entry.
  5. Cânticos 5:5The myrrh dripping from her hands onto the door handles suggests she had perfumed herself while waiting for him, a sensory detail that turns even the act of opening the door into something charged with desire.
  6. Cânticos 5:6Her delay in opening the door has a real consequence: by the time she finally does, he is already gone, turning the scene of anticipation into one of regret and desperate searching right afterward.
  7. Cânticos 5:7Unlike the gentle encounter with the watchmen in chapter 3, here they mistreat her and take her veil — an escalation of violence that may reflect either a real danger or the emotional intensity of her own despair.
  8. Cânticos 5:8Asking the other young women to pass along a message, in case they find the beloved before she does, shows how lost her search already feels — she turns to intermediaries because she can no longer find him on her own.
  9. Cânticos 5:9The other women’s curious question, what makes this love so special, works as a narrative hook that introduces the long physical description of him in the following verses.
  10. Cânticos 5:10After he described her body in earlier chapters, here it is her turn to describe his, with equally elaborate images like a head of fine gold and legs like marble columns, showing that the physical admiration was mutual between the two.
  11. Cânticos 5:11Comparing the head to pure gold and the hair to a black raven brings together two very different images of value and beauty, material luxury and nature’s intense color, in a single description.
  12. Cânticos 5:12The same dove-eyes image used to describe the beloved in chapter 1 appears here reversed, applied to him — the poem reuses compliments between the two characters in both directions.
  13. Cânticos 5:13Describing the lips as lilies dripping myrrh combines a delicate visual image with an almost tangible sense of perfume coming from his speech or his kiss.
  14. Cânticos 5:14Comparing parts of the body to metals and precious stones, gold, ivory, sapphires, builds an almost sculptural portrait of him, both a work of art and a real person.
  15. Cânticos 5:15Ending the description by comparing him to marble columns and the cedars of Lebanon reinforces an image of stability and grandeur, worthy of a temple or palace, applied to the body of a loved one.
  16. Cânticos 5:16Calling him both “beloved” and “friend” in the same verse shows that the poem does not separate romantic passion from companionship — the two terms appear together as part of the same relationship.

Chapters

12345678

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play