I sleep, but my heart is awake. A voice! My lover is knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is drenched with dew, my locks with dewdrops of night.”
My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in a secret place along the steep path, let me see your form, let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet and your form is lovely.”
I opened to my lover— but my lover had departed, he was gone! My soul went out to him when he spoke. I searched for him, but did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer me.
Yet my dove, my perfect one is unique. She is her mother’s only one— a virtuous child of the one who bore her. Maidens saw her and called her blessed. Queens and concubines praised her.
I said, “I will climb the date palm and take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apple.
and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me. And the life I now live in the body, I live by trusting in Ben-Elohim—who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from among mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.