Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon

1 The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;

For thy love is better than wine.

3Thine oils have a goodly fragrance;

Thy name is as oil poured forth;

Therefore do the virgins love thee.

4Draw me; we will run after thee:

The king hath brought me into his chambers;

We will be glad and rejoice in thee;

We will make mention of thy love more than of wine:

Rightly do they love thee.

5I am black, but comely,

Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem,

As the tents of Kedar,

As the curtains of Solomon.

6Look not upon me, because I am swarthy,

Because the sun hath scorched me.

My mother’s sons were incensed against me;

They made me keeper of the vineyards;

But mine own vineyard have I not kept.

7Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,

Where thou feedest thy flock,

Where thou makest it to rest at noon:

For why should I be as one that is veiled

Beside the flocks of thy companions?

8If thou know not, O thou fairest among women,

Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,

And feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

9I have compared thee, O my love,

To a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.

10Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair,

Thy neck with strings of jewels.

11We will make thee plaits of gold

With studs of silver.

12While the king sat at his table,

My spikenard sent forth its fragrance.

13My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh,

That lieth betwixt my breasts.

14My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers

In the vineyards of En-gedi.

15Behold, thou art fair, my love;

Behold thou art fair;

Thine eyes are as doves.

16Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant:

Also our couch is green.

17The beams of our house are cedars,

And our rafters are firs.

2 I am a rose of Sharon,

A lily of the valleys.

2As a lily among thorns,

So is my love among the daughters.

3As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood,

So is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight,

And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4He brought me to the banqueting-house,

And his banner over me was love.

5Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples;

For I am sick from love.

6His left hand is under my head,

And his right hand doth embrace me.

7I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the roes, or by the hinds of the field,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,

Until he please.

8The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh,

Leaping upon the mountains,

Skipping upon the hills.

9My beloved is like a roe or a young hart:

Behold, he standeth behind our wall;

He looketh in at the windows;

He glanceth through the lattice.

10My beloved spake, and said unto me,

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11For, lo, the winter is past;

The rain is over and gone;

12The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of the singing of birds is come,

And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;

13The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,

And the vines are in blossom;

They give forth their fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,

In the covert of the steep place,

Let me see thy countenance,

Let me hear thy voice;

For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15Take us the foxes, the little foxes,

That spoil the vineyards;

For our vineyards are in blossom.

16My beloved is mine, and I am his:

He feedeth his flock among the lilies.

17Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,

Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart

Upon the mountains of Bether.

3 By night on my bed

I sought him whom my soul loveth:

I sought him, but I found him not.

2I said, I will rise now, and go about the city;

In the streets and in the broad ways

I will seek him whom my soul loveth:

I sought him, but I found him not.

3The watchmen that go about the city found me;

To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4It was but a little that I passed from them,

When I found him whom my soul loveth:

I held him, and would not let him go,

Until I had brought him into my mother’s house,

And into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the roes, or by the hinds of the field,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,

Until he please.

6Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness

Like pillars of smoke,

Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

With all powders of the merchant?

7Behold, it is the litter of Solomon;

Threescore mighty men are about it,

Of the mighty men of Israel.

8They all handle the sword, and are expert in war:

Every man hath his sword upon his thigh,

Because of fear in the night.

9King Solomon made himself a palanquin

Of the wood of Lebanon.

10He made the pillars thereof of silver,

The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple,

The midst thereof being paved with love,

From the daughters of Jerusalem.

11Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon,

With the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him

In the day of his espousals,

And in the day of the gladness of his heart.

4 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;

Thine eyes are as doves behind thy veil.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats,

That lie along the side of mount Gilead.

2Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly shorn,

Which are come up from the washing,

Whereof every one hath twins,

And none is bereaved among them.

3Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,

And thy mouth is comely.

Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate

Behind thy veil.

4Thy neck is like the tower of David

Builded for an armory,

Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,

All the shields of the mighty men.

5Thy two breasts are like two fawns

That are twins of a roe,

Which feed among the lilies.

6Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,

I will get me to the mountain of myrrh,

And to the hill of frankincense.

7Thou art all fair, my love;

And there is no spot in thee.

8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,

With me from Lebanon:

Look from the top of Amana,

From the top of Senir and Hermon,

From the lions’ dens,

From the mountains of the leopards.

9Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;

Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,

With one chain of thy neck.

10How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!

How much better is thy love than wine!

And the fragrance of thine oils than all manner of spices!

11Thy lips, O my bride, drop as the honeycomb:

Honey and milk are under thy tongue;

And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

12A garden shut up is my sister, my bride;

A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits;

Henna with spikenard plants,

14Spikenard and saffron,

Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;

Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.

15Thou art a fountain of gardens,

A well of living waters,

And flowing streams from Lebanon.

16Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;

Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.

Let my beloved come into his garden,

And eat his precious fruits.

5 I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride:

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, O friends;

Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

2I was asleep, but my heart waked:

It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,

Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;

For my head is filled with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.

3I have put off my garment; how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

4My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door,

And my heart was moved for him.

5I rose up to open to my beloved;

And my hands dropped with myrrh,

And my fingers with liquid myrrh,

Upon the handles of the bolt.

6I opened to my beloved;

But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone.

My soul had failed me when he spake:

I sought him, but I could not find him;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

7The watchmen that go about the city found me,

They smote me, they wounded me;

The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.

8I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

If ye find my beloved,

That ye tell him, that I am sick from love.

9What is thy beloved more than another beloved,

O thou fairest among women?

What is thy beloved more than another beloved,

That thou dost so adjure us?

10My beloved is white and ruddy,

The chiefest among ten thousand.

11His head is as the most fine gold;

His locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

12His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks,

Washed with milk, and fitly set.

13His cheeks are as a bed of spices,

As banks of sweet herbs:

His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

14His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl:

His body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires.

15His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold:

His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

16His mouth is most sweet;

Yea, he is altogether lovely.

This is my beloved, and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

6 Whither is thy beloved gone,

O thou fairest among women?

Whither hath thy beloved turned him,

That we may seek him with thee?

2My beloved is gone down to his garden,

To the beds of spices,

To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

3I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine:

He feedeth his flock among the lilies.

4Thou art fair, O my love, as Tirzah,

Comely as Jerusalem,

Terrible as an army with banners.

5Turn away thine eyes from me,

For they have overcome me.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats,

That lie along the side of Gilead.

6Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes,

Which are come up from the washing;

Whereof every one hath twins,

And none is bereaved among them.

7Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate

Behind thy veil.

8There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,

And virgins without number.

9My dove, my undefiled, is but one;

She is the only one of her mother;

She is the choice one of her that bare her.

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