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Cânticos 5

BLIVRE · Chapter 5/8

1[Ele] : Já cheguei ao meu jardim, minha irmã, [minha] esposa; colhi minha mirra com minha especiaria; comi meu mel, bebi meu vinho com meu leite. [Autor do poema (ou os amigos dos noivos)] : Comei, amigos; bebei, ó amados, e embebedai-vos.

2[Ela] : Eu estava dormindo, mas meu coração vigiava; era a voz de meu amado, batendo: Abre-me, minha irmã, minha querida, minha pomba, minha perfeita! Porque minha cabeça está cheia de orvalho, meus cabelos das gotas da noite.

3Já tirei minha roupa; como [voltarei] a vesti-la? Já lavei meus pés; como vou sujá-los [de novo] ?

4Meu amado meteu sua mão pelo buraco [da porta] ,e meu interior se estremeceu por ele.

5Eu me levantei para abrir a meu amado; minhas mãos gotejavam mirra, e meus dedos [derramaram] mirra sobre os puxadores da fechadura.

6Eu abri a porta ao meu amado, porém meu amado já tinha saído e ido embora; minha alma como que saía [de si] por causa de seu falar. Eu o busquei, mas não o achei; eu o chamei, mas ele não me respondeu.

7Os guardas que rondavam pela cidade me encontraram; eles me bateram [e] me feriram; os guardas dos muros tiraram de mim o meu véu.

8Eu vos ordeno, filhas de Jerusalém: jurai que, se achardes o meu amado, dizei a ele que estou doente de amor.

9[Moças] : Ó, tu, mais bela entre as mulheres, como é o teu amado, a quem tu amas mais do que qualquer outro? Como é este teu amado, mais amado que qualquer outro, por quem assim nos mandas jurar?

10[Ela] : Meu amado é radiante e rosado; ele se destaca entre dez mil.

11Sua cabeça é [como] o mais fino ouro; seus cabelos são crespos, pretos como o corvo.

12Seus olhos são como pombas junto às correntes de águas, lavados em leite, colocados como [joias] .

13As laterais de seu rosto como um canteiro de especiarias, [como] caixas aromáticas; seus lábios são [como] lírios, que gotejam fragrante mirra.

14Suas mãos são [como] anéis de ouro com pedras de crisólitos; seu abdome [como] o brilhante marfim, coberto de safiras.

15Suas pernas são [como] colunas de mármore, fundadas sobre bases de ouro puro; seu aspecto é como o Líbano, precioso como os cedros.

16Sua boca é [cheia] de doçura, e ele é desejável em todos os sentidos; assim é o meu amado; assim é o meu querido, ó filhas de Jerusalém.

📖 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.

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