Song of Solomon 1:2–8:14

The Woman Speaks to the Man She Loves

²Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth,

because your love is better than wine.

³The smell of your perfume is pleasant,

and your name is pleasant like expensive perfume.

That’s why the young women love you.

⁴Take me with you; let’s run together.

The king takes me into his rooms.

Friends Speak to the Man

We will rejoice and be happy with you;

we praise your love more than wine.

With good reason, the young women love you.

The Woman Speaks

⁵I’m dark but lovely,

women of Jerusalem,

dark like the tents of Kedar,

like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Don’t look at how dark I am,

at how dark the sun has made me.

My brothers were angry with me

and made me tend the vineyards,

so I haven’t tended my own vineyard!

⁷Tell me, you whom I love,

where do you feed your sheep?

Where do you let them rest at noon?

Why should I look for you near your friend’s sheep,

like a woman who wears a veil? ⁿ

The Man Speaks to the Woman

⁸You are the most beautiful of women.

Surely you know to follow the sheep

and feed your young goats

near the shepherds’ tents.

⁹My darling, you are like a mare

among the king’s stallions.

¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,

and your neck with jewels.

¹¹We will make for you gold earrings

with silver hooks.

The Woman Speaks

¹²The smell of my perfume spreads out

to the king on his couch.

¹³My lover is like a bag of myrrh

that lies all night between my breasts.

¹⁴My lover is like a bunch of flowers

from the vineyards at En Gedi.

The Man Speaks

¹⁵My darling, you are beautiful!

Oh, you are beautiful,

and your eyes are like doves.

The Woman Answers the Man

¹⁶You are so handsome, my lover,

and so pleasant!

Our bed is the grass.

¹⁷Cedar trees form our roof;

our ceiling is made of juniper wood.

The Woman Speaks Again

2I am a rose in the Plain of Sharon,

a lily in the valleys.

The Man Speaks Again

²Among the young women, my darling

is like a lily among thorns!

The Woman Answers

³Among the young men, my lover

is like an apple tree in the woods!

I enjoy sitting in his shadow;

his fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to the banquet room,

and his banner over me is love.

⁵Strengthen me with raisins,

and refresh me with apples,

because I am weak with love.

⁶My lover’s left hand is under my head,

and his right arm holds me tight.

The Woman Speaks to the Friends

⁷Women of Jerusalem, promise me

by the gazelles and the deer

not to awaken

or excite my feelings of love

until it is ready.

The Woman Speaks Again

⁸I hear my lover’s voice.

Here he comes jumping across the mountains,

skipping over the hills.

⁹My lover is like a gazelle or a young deer.

Look, he stands behind our wall

peeking through the windows,

looking through the blinds.

¹⁰My lover spoke and said to me,

“Get up, my darling;

let’s go away, my beautiful one.

¹¹Look, the winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

¹²Blossoms appear through all the land.

The time has come to sing;

the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

¹³There are young figs on the fig trees,

and the blossoms on the vines smell sweet.

Get up, my darling;

let’s go away, my beautiful one.”

The Man Speaks

¹⁴My beloved is like a dove hiding in the cracks of the rock,

in the secret places of the cliff.

Show me your face,

and let me hear your voice.

Your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

¹⁵Catch the foxes for us—

the little foxes that ruin the vineyards

while they are in blossom.

The Woman Speaks

¹⁶My lover is mine, and I am his.

He feeds among the lilies

¹⁷until the day dawns

and the shadows disappear.

Turn, my lover.

Be like a gazelle or a young deer

on the mountain valleys.

The Woman Dreams

3At night on my bed,

I looked for the one I love;

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

²I got up and went around the city,

in the streets and squares,

looking for the one I love.

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

³The watchmen found me as they patrolled the city,

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

⁴As soon as I had left them,

I found the one I love.

I held him and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

to the room where I was born.

The Woman Speaks to the Friends

⁵Women of Jerusalem, promise me

by the gazelles and the deer

not to awaken

or excite my feelings of love

until it is ready.

⁶Who is this coming out of the desert

like a cloud of smoke?

Who is this that smells like myrrh, incense,

and other spices?

⁷Look, it’s Solomon’s couch ⁿ

with sixty soldiers around it,

the finest soldiers of Israel.

⁸These soldiers all carry swords

and have been trained in war.

Every man wears a sword at his side

and is ready for the dangers of the night.

⁹King Solomon had a couch made for himself

of wood from Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver

and its braces of gold.

The seat was covered with purple cloth

that the women of Jerusalem wove with love.

¹¹Women of Jerusalem, go out and see King Solomon.

He is wearing the crown his mother put on his head

on his wedding day,

when his heart was happy!

The Man Speaks to the Woman

4How beautiful you are, my darling!

Oh, you are beautiful!

Your eyes behind your veil are like doves.

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

²Your teeth are white like newly sheared sheep

just coming from their bath.

Each one has a twin,

and none of them is missing.

³Your lips are like red silk thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks behind your veil

are like slices of a pomegranate.

⁴Your neck is like David’s tower,

built with rows of stones.

A thousand shields hang on its walls;

each shield belongs to a strong soldier.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns,

like twins of a gazelle,

feeding among the lilies.

⁶Until the day dawns

and the shadows disappear,

I will go to that mountain of myrrh

and to that hill of incense.

⁷My darling, everything about you is beautiful,

and there is nothing at all wrong with you.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride.

Come with me from Lebanon,

from the top of Mount Amana,

from the tops of Mount Senir and Mount Hermon.

Come from the lions’ dens

and from the leopards’ hills.

⁹My sister, my bride,

you have thrilled my heart;

you have thrilled my heart

with a glance of your eyes,

with one sparkle from your necklace.

¹⁰Your love is so sweet, my sister, my bride.

Your love is better than wine,

and your perfume smells better than any spice.

¹¹My bride, your lips drip honey;

honey and milk are under your tongue.

Your clothes smell like the cedars of Lebanon.

¹²My sister, my bride, you are like a garden locked up,

like a walled-in spring, a closed-up fountain.

¹³Your limbs are like an orchard

of pomegranates with all the best fruit,

filled with flowers and nard,

¹⁴nard and saffron, calamus, and cinnamon,

with trees of incense, myrrh, and aloes—

all the best spices.

¹⁵You are like a garden fountain—

a well of fresh water

flowing down from the mountains of Lebanon.

The Woman Speaks

¹⁶Awake, north wind.

Come, south wind.

Blow on my garden,

and let its sweet smells flow out.

Let my lover enter the garden

and eat its best fruits.

The Man Speaks

5I have entered my garden, my sister, my bride.

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.

I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey.

I have drunk my wine and my milk.

The Friends Speak

Eat, friends, and drink;

yes, drink deeply, lovers.

The Woman Dreams

²I sleep, but my heart is awake.

I hear my lover knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, my darling,

my dove, my perfect one.

My head is wet with dew,

and my hair with the dampness of the night.”

³I have taken off my garment

and don’t want to put it on again.

I have washed my feet

and don’t want to get them dirty again.

⁴My lover put his hand through the opening,

and I felt excited inside.

⁵I got up to open the door for my lover.

Myrrh was dripping from my hands

and flowing from my fingers,

onto the handles of the lock.

⁶I opened the door for my lover,

but my lover had left and was gone.

When he spoke, he took my breath away.

I looked for him, but I could not find him;

I called for him, but he did not answer.

⁷The watchmen found me

as they patrolled the city.

They hit me and hurt me;

the guards on the wall took away my veil.

⁸Promise me, women of Jerusalem,

if you find my lover,

tell him I am weak with love.

The Friends Answer the Woman

⁹How is your lover better than other lovers,

most beautiful of women?

How is your lover better than other lovers?

Why do you want us to promise this?

The Woman Answers the Friends

¹⁰My lover is healthy and tan,

the best of ten thousand men.

¹¹His head is like the finest gold;

his hair is wavy and black like a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves

by springs of water.

They seem to be bathed in cream

and are set like jewels.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices;

they smell like mounds of perfume.

His lips are like lilies

flowing with myrrh.

¹⁴His hands are like gold hinges,

filled with jewels.

His body is like shiny ivory

covered with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are like large marble posts,

standing on bases of fine gold.

He is like a cedar of Lebanon,

like the finest of the trees.

¹⁶His mouth is sweet to kiss,

and I desire him very much.

Yes, daughters of Jerusalem,

this is my lover

and my friend.

The Friends Speak to the Woman

6Where has your lover gone,

most beautiful of women?

Which way did your lover turn?

We will look for him with you.

The Woman Answers the Friends

²My lover has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to feed in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³I belong to my lover,

and my lover belongs to me.

He feeds among the lilies.

The Man Speaks to the Woman

⁴My darling, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah,

as lovely as the city of Jerusalem,

like an army flying flags.

⁵Turn your eyes from me,

because they excite me too much.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down Mount Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are white like sheep

just coming from their bath;

each one has a twin,

and none of them is missing.

⁷Your cheeks behind your veil

are like slices of a pomegranate.

⁸There may be sixty queens and eighty slave women

and so many girls you cannot count them,

⁹but there is only one like my dove, my perfect one.

She is her mother’s only daughter,

the brightest of the one who gave her birth.

The young women saw her and called her happy;

the queens and the slave women also praised her.

The…