Praise of the Man’s Body

Song of Songs 5:10–16

Hellenistic Period, 4th–2nd Century BCE

10My beloved is clear-skinned and ruddy,
Preeminent among ten thousand.
11His head is finest gold,
His locks are curled
And black as a raven.
12His eyes are like doves
By watercourses,
Bathed in milk,
Set by a brimming pool.
13His cheeks are like beds of spices,
Banks of perfume
His lips are like lilies;
They drip flowing myrrh.
14His hands are rods of gold,
Studded with beryl;
His belly a tablet of ivory,
Adorned with sapphires.
15His legs are like marble pillars
Set in sockets of fine gold.
He is majestic as Lebanon,
Stately as the cedars.
16His mouth is delicious
And all of him is delightful.
Such is my beloved,
Such is my darling,
O maidens of Jerusalem!

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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