Song of Solomon 1:2–8:14

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

Your expressions of love are better than wine, 

³better than the fragrance of cologne. 

(Cologne should be named after you.) 

No wonder the young women love you! 

⁴Take me with you. Let’s run away. 

The king has brought me into his private rooms. 

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

We will celebrate and rejoice with you. 

We will praise your expressions of love more than wine. 

How right it is that the young women love you! 

^[BRIDE^[

⁵Young women of Jerusalem, I am dark and lovely 

like Kedar’s tents, 

like Solomon’s curtains. 

⁶Stop staring at me because I am so dark. 

The sun has tanned me. 

My brothers were angry with me. 

They made me the caretaker of the vineyards. 

I have not even taken care of my own vineyard. 

⁷Please tell me, you whom I love, where do you graze your flock? 

Where does your flock lie down at noon? 

⸤Tell me,⸥ or I will be considered a prostitute 

⸤wandering⸥ among the flocks of your companions. 

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

⁸If you do not know, most beautiful of women, 

follow the tracks of the flocks, 

and graze your young goats near the shepherds’ tents. 

Solomon Searches for the Young Woman’s Love

^[GROOM^[

⁹My true love, I compare you to a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions. 

¹⁰Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, 

your neck with strings of pearls. 

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

¹¹We will make gold ornaments with silver beads for you. 

^[BRIDE^[

¹²While the king is at his table, 

my perfume fills the air with its fragrance. 

¹³My beloved is a pouch of myrrh^a

that lies at night between my breasts. 

¹⁴My beloved is a bouquet of henna flowers 

in the vineyards of En Gedi. 

^[GROOM^[

¹⁵Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love! 

Look at you! You are so beautiful! 

Your eyes are like doves! 

^[BRIDE^[

¹⁶Look at you! You are handsome, my beloved, so pleasing to me! 

The leaf-scattered ground will be our couch. 

¹⁷The cedars will be the walls of our house. 

The cypress trees will be our rafters. 

2ND CHAPTER

¹I am a rose of Sharon, 

a lily ⸤growing⸥ in the valleys. 

^[GROOM^[

²Like a lily among thorns, 

so is my true love among the young women. 

^[BRIDE^[

³Like an apple tree among the trees in the forest, 

so is my beloved among the young men. 

I want to sit in his shadow. 

His fruit tastes sweet to me. 

⁴He leads me into a banquet room 

and looks at me with love. 

⁵Strengthen me with raisins 

and refresh me with apples 

because I am weak from love. 

⁶His left hand is under my head. 

His right hand caresses me. 

⁷Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me 

by the gazelles 

or by the does in the field 

that you will not awaken love 

or arouse love before its proper time. 

The Young Woman Remembers One Spring Day with Her Beloved

^[BRIDE^[

⁸I hear my beloved’s voice. 

Look! Here he comes, 

sprinting over the mountains, 

racing over the hills. 

⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. 

Look! There he stands behind our wall, 

peeking through the window, 

looking through the lattice. 

¹⁰My beloved said to me, 

“Get up, my true love, my beautiful one, and come with me. 

¹¹Look! The winter is past. 

The rain is over and gone. 

¹²Blossoms appear in the land. 

The time of the songbird has arrived. 

The cooing of the mourning dove is heard in our land. 

¹³The green figs ripen. 

The grapevines bloom and give off a fragrance. 

Get up, my true love, my beautiful one, and come with me. 

¹⁴My dove, in the hiding places of the rocky crevices, 

in the secret places of the cliffs, 

let me see your figure and hear your voice. 

Your voice is sweet, and your figure is lovely.” 

¹⁵Catch the foxes for us, 

the little foxes that ruin vineyards. 

Our vineyards are blooming. 

¹⁶My beloved is mine, and I am his. 

He is the one who grazes his flock among the lilies. 

¹⁷When the day brings a cooling breeze and the shadows flee, 

turn around, my beloved. 

Run like a gazelle or a young stag 

on the mountains that separate us! 

3RD CHAPTER

The Young Woman Dreams about Searching for Her Beloved

^[BRIDE^[

¹Night after night on my bed 

I looked for the one I love. 

I looked for him but did not find him. 

²I will get up now and roam around the city, 

in the streets, and in the squares. 

I will look for the one I love. 

I looked for him but did not find him. 

³The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me. 

⸤I asked,⸥ “Have you seen the one I love?” 

⁴I had just left them when I found the one I love. 

I held on to him and would not let him go 

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

into the bedroom of the one who conceived me. 

⁵Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me 

by the gazelles 

or by the does in the field, 

that you will not awaken love 

or arouse love before its proper time. 

A Description of the Royal Procession

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

⁶Who is this young woman coming up from the wilderness 

like clouds of smoke? 

She is perfumed with myrrh and incense 

made from the merchants’ scented powders. 

⁷Look! Solomon’s sedan chair!^a

Sixty soldiers from the army of Israel surround it. 

⁸All of them are skilled in using swords, 

experienced in combat. 

Each one has his sword at his side 

and guards against the terrors of the night. 

⁹King Solomon had a carriage made for himselffrom the wood of Lebanon. 

¹⁰He had its posts made out of silver, 

its top out of gold, 

its seat out of purple fabric. 

Its inside—with inlaid scenes of love— 

was made by the young women of Jerusalem. 

¹¹Young women of Zion, come out and look at King Solomon! 

Look at his crown, 

the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day, 

his day of joyful delight. 

4TH CHAPTER

Solomon Is Charmed by the Young Woman

^[GROOM^[

¹Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love. 

Look at you! You are so beautiful. 

Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. 

Your hair is like a flock of goats moving down Mount Gilead. 

²Your teeth are like a flock of sheep about to be sheared, 

sheep that come up from the washing. 

All of them bear twins, and not one has lost its young. 

³Your lips are like scarlet thread. 

Your mouth is lovely. 

Your temples behind your veil are like slices of pomegranate. 

⁴Your neck is like David’s beautifully-designedtower. 

A thousand round shields belonging to soldiers 

are hung on it. 

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns, 

like twin gazelles grazing among the lilies. 

⁶When the day brings a cool breeze and the shadows flee, 

I will go to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of incense. 

⁷You are beautiful in every way, my true love. 

There is no blemish on you. 

⁸You will come with me from Lebanon, 

from Lebanon as my bride. 

You will travel with me 

from the peak of Mount Amana, 

from the mountain peaks in Senir and Hermon, 

from the lairs of lions, 

from the mountains of leopards. 

⁹My bride, my sister, you have charmed me.^b

You have charmed me 

with a single glance from your eyes, 

with a single strand of your necklace. 

¹⁰How beautiful are your expressions of love, my bride, my sister! 

How much better are your expressions of love than wine 

and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice. 

¹¹Your lips drip honey, my bride. 

Honey and milk are under your tongue. 

The fragrance of your clothing is like the fragrance of Lebanon. 

¹²My bride, my sister is a garden that is locked, 

a garden that is locked, 

a spring that is sealed. 

¹³You are paradise that produces 

pomegranates and the best fruits, 

henna flowers and nard, 

¹⁴nard and saffron, 

calamus,^ccinnamon, and all kinds of incense,^d

myrrh, aloes, and all the best spices. 

¹⁵⸤You are⸥ a spring for gardens, 

a well of living water flowing from Lebanon. 

^[BRIDE^[

¹⁶Awake, north wind! 

Come, south wind! 

Blow on my garden! 

Let its spices flow from it. 

Let my beloved come to his garden, 

and let him eat his own precious fruit. 

5TH CHAPTER

^[GROOM^[

¹My bride, my sister, I will come to my garden. 

I will gather my myrrh with my spice. 

I will eat my honeycomb with my honey. 

I will drink my wine with my milk. 

Eat, my friends! 

Drink and become intoxicated with expressions of love! 

The Young Woman Dreams of Marriage with Her Husband

^[BRIDE^[

²I sleep, but my mind is awake. 

Listen! My beloved is knocking. 

^[GROOM^[

Open to me, my true love, my sister, 

my dove, my perfect one. 

My head is wet with dew, 

my hair with the dewdrops of night. 

^[BRIDE^[

³I have taken off my clothes! Why should I put them on ⸤again⸥? 

I have washed my feet! Why should I get them dirty ⸤again⸥? 

⁴My beloved put his hand through the keyhole. 

My heart throbbed for him. 

⁵I got up to open for my beloved. 

My hands dripped with myrrh, 

and my fingers were drenched with liquid myrrh, 

on the handles of the lock. 

⁶I opened for my beloved, 

but my beloved had turned away. He was gone! 

I almost died when he left. 

I looked for him, but I did not find him. 

I called for him, but he did not answer me. 

⁷The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me. 

They struck me! 

They wounded me! 

Those watchmen on the walls took my robe from me! 

⁸Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me 

that if you find my beloved 

you will tell him I am hopelessly lovesick. 

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

⁹Most beautiful of women, 

what makes your beloved better than any other beloved? 

What makes your beloved better than any other beloved 

that you make us swear this way? 

^[BRIDE^[

¹⁰My beloved is dazzling yet ruddy. 

He stands out among 10,000 men. 

¹¹His head is the finest gold. 

His hair is wavy, black as a raven. 

¹²His eyes are set like doves bathing in milk. 

¹³His cheeks are like a garden of spices, 

a garden that produces scented herbs. 

His lips are lilies that drip with myrrh. 

¹⁴His hands are disks of gold set with emerald. 

His chest is a block of ivory covered with sapphires. 

¹⁵His legs are columns of marble set on bases of pure gold. 

His form is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 

¹⁶His mouth is sweet in every way. 

Everything about him is desirable! 

This is my beloved, and this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem. 

6TH CHAPTER

^[THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN^[

¹Where did your beloved go, most beautiful of women? 

Where did your beloved turn? 

We will look for him with you. 

^[BRIDE^[

²My beloved went to his garden, 

to the beds of spices, 

to graze his flock in the gardens and gather…