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Song of Songs 5:2
New Catholic Bible
Song of Songs 5:2
New Catholic Bible
Companions:
Eat, friends, and drink deeply,
until you are drunk with love.[a]
Fourth Poem
I Sought Him, but I Could Not Find Him
Open to Me[b]
Bride:
2 I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
Listen! My beloved is knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my beloved,
my dove, my perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew,[c]
my hair with the wetness of the night.”
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 5:2 The lovers are urged to share their love, which is an image of the love between Christ and his Church (see Eph 5:29-32).
- Song of Songs 5:2 The bride is sleeping, and the thought of the bridegroom is with her even in her dreams. Suddenly, he knocks on the door. Happiness and fear meld together; how can she receive him in the middle of the night? She hesitates and makes believe that she cannot open the door, even though she is already trembling with joy at the coming encounter. However, when she finally dares to open the door, the bridegroom has disappeared into the night and she is alone.
For Israel, too, God remains hidden when the people are tardy in answering his call. The time is near—this is the message of John the Baptist. “Behold, I am standing at the door, knocking”: such is the seductive but demanding image of Christ in the Book of Revelation (Rev 3:20). - Song of Songs 5:2 Dew: a symbol of divine blessings (see Ps 133:3; Hos 14:6).
