Song of Solomon 3

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!