The woman's slowness in responding has meant that her beloved has turned and gone. In response she literally says, My soul went out,
as if her essence had gone out in pursuit of him. So, we might say in today’s words, that she nearly died.1
The young woman is distraught at the fact that a sense of emotional and relational distance has entered her marriage because of failed intimacy.
6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.