Song of Solomon 3

CHAPTER 3

The Bride’s Troubled Dream

¹“¹On my bed night after night I sought him

^aWhom my soul loves;

I ^bsought him but did not find him.

²‘¹I must arise now and ²go about the city;

In the ^astreets and in the squares

³I must seek him whom my soul loves.’

I sought him but did not find him.

³“^aThe watchmen who go about the city found me,

And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

⁴“^aScarcely had I passed them by

When I found him whom my soul loves;

I ^bseized him and would not let him go

Until I had ^cbrought him to my mother’s house,

And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

⁵“¹I ^acall you to solemnly swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the ^bgazelles or by the hinds of the field,

That you do not arouse or awaken my love

Until ²she pleases.”

Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day

⁶“^1aWho is this coming up from the wilderness

Like ^bcolumns of smoke,

As rising incense of ^cmyrrh and ^dfrankincense,

With all scented powders of the merchant?

⁷“Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon;

Sixty mighty men around it,

Of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸“All of them are those who seize the sword,

^aLearned in war;

Each man has his ^bsword at his side,

Guarding against the ^1cdreadful things of the night.

⁹“King Solomon has made for himself a sedan chair

From the timber of Lebanon.

¹⁰“He made its posts of silver,

Its ¹back of gold

And its seat of purple fabric,

With its interior inlaid with love

By the ^adaughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹“Go forth and see, O ^adaughters of Zion,

King Solomon with the ¹crown

With which his mother has crowned him

On the ^bday of his wedding,

And on the day of his gladness of heart.”