Song of Solomon 1:2–17

²O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!

For your love is better than wine,

³your anointing oils are fragrant,

your name is oil poured out;

therefore the maidens love you.

⁴Draw me after you, let us make haste.

The king has brought me into his chambers.

We will exult and rejoice in you;

we will extol your love more than wine;

rightly do they love you.

⁵I am very dark, but comely,

O daughters of Jerusalem,

like the tents of Kedar,

like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy,

because the sun has scorched me.

My mother’s sons were angry with me,

they made me keeper of the vineyards;

but, my own vineyard I have not kept!

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves,

where you pasture your flock,

where you make it lie down at noon;

for why should I be like one who wanders

beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know,

O fairest among women,

follow in the tracks of the flock,

and pasture your kids

beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I compare you, my love,

to a mare of Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,

your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹We will make you ornaments of gold,

studded with silver.

¹²While the king was on his couch,

my nard gave forth its fragrance. ¹³My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh,

that lies between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms

in the vineyards of Engedi.

¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love;

behold, you are beautiful;

your eyes are doves.

¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved,

truly lovely.

Our couch is green;

¹⁷the beams of our house are cedar,

our rafters are pine.