Song of Solomon 1–8

¹The Song of Songs, that is Solomon’s.

²Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth, For better are thy loves than wine. ³For fragrance are thy perfumes good. Perfume emptied out—thy name, Therefore have virgins loved thee! ⁴Draw me: after thee we run, The king hath brought me into his inner chambers, We do joy and rejoice in thee, We mention thy loves more than wine, Uprightly they have loved thee! ⁵Dark am I, and comely, daughters of Jerusalem, As tents of Kedar, as curtains of Solomon. ⁶Fear me not, because I am very dark, Because the sun hath scorched me, The sons of my mother were angry with me, They made me keeper of the vineyards, My vineyard—my own—I have not kept.

⁷Declare to me, thou whom my soul hath loved, Where thou delightest, Where thou liest down at noon, For why am I as one veiled, By the ranks of thy companions? ⁸If thou knowest not, O fair among women, Get thee forth by the traces of the flock, And feed thy kids by the shepherds’ dwellings! ⁹To my joyous one in chariots of Pharaoh, I have compared thee, my friend, ¹⁰Comely have been thy cheeks with garlands, Thy neck with chains. ¹¹Garlands of gold we do make for thee, With studs of silver!

¹²While the king is in his circle, My spikenard hath given its fragrance. ¹³A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, Between my breasts it lodgeth. ¹⁴A cluster of cypress is my beloved to me, In the vineyards of En-Gedi! ¹⁵Lo, thou art fair, my friend, Lo, thou art fair, thine eyes are doves! ¹⁶Lo, thou art fair, my love, yea, pleasant, Yea, our couch is green, ¹⁷The beams of our houses are cedars, Our rafters are firs, I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys!

Chapter 2

¹As a lily among the thorns, ²So is my friend among the daughters!

³As a citron among trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the sons, In his shade I delighted, and sat down, And his fruit is sweet to my palate. ⁴He hath brought me in unto a house of wine, And his banner over me is love, ⁵Sustain me with grape-cakes, Support me with citrons, for I am sick with love. ⁶His left hand is under my head, And his right doth embrace me. ⁷I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes or by the hinds of the field, Stir not up nor wake the love till she please!

⁸The voice of my beloved! lo, this—he is coming, Leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. ⁹My beloved is like to a roe, Or to a young one of the harts. Lo, this—he is standing behind our wall, Looking from the windows, Blooming from the lattice. ¹⁰My beloved hath answered and said to me, ‘Rise up, my friend, my fair one, and come away, ¹¹For lo, the winter hath passed by, The rain hath passed away—it hath gone. ¹²The flowers have appeared in the earth, The time of the singing hath come, And the voice of the turtle was heard in our land, ¹³The fig-tree hath ripened her green figs, And the sweet-smelling vines have given forth fragrance, Rise, come, my friend, my fair one, yea, come away.

¹⁴My dove, in clefts of the rock, In a secret place of the ascent, Cause me to see thine appearance, Cause me to hear thy voice, For thy voice is sweet, and thy appearance comely. ¹⁵Seize ye for us foxes, Little foxes—destroyers of vineyards, Even our sweet-smelling vineyards. ¹⁶My beloved is mine, and I am his, Who is delighting among the lilies, ¹⁷Till the day doth break forth, And the shadows have fled away, Turn, be like, my beloved, To a roe, or to a young one of the harts, On the mountains of separation!

Chapter 3

¹On my couch by night, I sought him whom my soul hath loved; I sought him, and I found him not! —Pray, let me rise, and go round the city, In the streets and in the broad places, I seek him whom my soul hath loved!—I sought him, and I found him not. ³The watchmen have found me, (Who are going round about the city), ‘Him whom my soul have loved saw ye?’ ⁴But a little I passed on from them, Till I found him whom my soul hath loved! I seized him, and let him not go, Till I brought him in unto the house of my mother—And the chamber of her that conceived me. ⁵I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes or by the hinds of the field, Stir not up nor wake the love till she please!

⁶Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Like palm-trees of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, From every powder of the merchant?

⁷Lo, his couch, that is Solomon’s, Sixty mighty ones are around it, Of the mighty of Israel, ⁸All of them holding sword, taught of battle, Each his sword by his thigh, for fear at night. ⁹A palanquin king Solomon made for himself, Of the wood of Lebanon, ¹⁰Its pillars he made of silver, Its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, Its midst lined with love, By the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹Go forth, and look, ye daughters of Zion, On king Solomon, with the crown, With which his mother crowned him, In the day of his espousals, And in the day of the joy of his heart!

Chapter 4

¹Lo, thou art fair, my friend, lo, thou art fair, Thine eyes are doves behind thy veil, Thy hair as a row of the goats That have shone from mount Gilead, ²Thy teeth as a row of the shorn ones That have come up from the washing, For all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them. ³As a thread of scarlet are thy lips, And thy speech is comely, As the work of the pomegranate is thy temple behind thy veil, ⁴As the tower of David is thy neck, built for an armoury, The chief of the shields are hung on it, All shields of the mighty. ⁵Thy two breasts are as two fawns, Twins of a roe, that are feeding among lilies. ⁶Till the day doth break forth, And the shadows have fled away, I will get me unto the mountain of myrrh, And unto the hill of frankincense. ⁷Thou art all fair, my friend, And a blemish there is not in thee. Come from Lebanon, O spouse,

⁸Come from Lebanon, come thou in. Look from the top of Amana, From the top of Shenir and Hermon, From the habitations of lions, From the mountains of leopards. ⁹Thou hast emboldened me, my sister-spouse, Emboldened me with one of thine eyes, With one chain of thy neck. ¹⁰How wonderful have been thy loves, my sister-spouse, How much better have been thy loves than wine, And the fragrance of thy perfumes than all spices. ¹¹Thy lips drop honey, O spouse, Honey and milk are under thy tongue, And the fragrance of thy garments Is as the fragrance of Lebanon. ¹²A garden shut up is my sister-spouse, A spring shut up—a fountain sealed. ¹³Thy shoots a paradise of pomegranates, With precious fruits, ¹⁴Cypresses with nard—nard and saffron, Cane and cinnamon, With all trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices.

¹⁵A fount of gardens, a well of living waters, And flowings from Lebanon! ¹⁶Awake, O north wind, and come, O south, Cause my garden to breathe forth, its spices let flow, Let my beloved come to his garden, And eat its pleasant fruits!

Chapter 5

¹I have come in to my garden, my sister-spouse, I have plucked my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, Yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ones!

²I am sleeping, but my heart waketh: The sound of my beloved knocking! ‘Open to me, my sister, my friend, My dove, my perfect one, For my head is filled with dew, My locks with drops of the night.’ ³I have put off my coat, how do I put it on? I have washed my feet, how do I defile them? ⁴My beloved sent his hand from the net-work, And my bowels were moved for him. ⁵I rose to open to my beloved, And my hands dropped myrrh, Yea, my fingers flowing myrrh, On the handles of the lock. ⁶I opened to my beloved, But my beloved withdrew—he passed on, My soul went forth when he spake, I sought him, and found him not. I called him, and he answered me not. ⁷The watchmen who go round about the city, Found me, smote me, wounded me, Keepers of the walls lifted up my veil from off me. ⁸I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved—What do ye tell him? that I am sick with love!

⁹What is thy beloved above any beloved, O fair among women? What is thy beloved above any beloved, That thus thou hast adjured us? ¹⁰My beloved is clear and ruddy, Conspicuous above a myriad! ¹¹His head is pure gold—fine gold, His locks flowing, dark as a raven, ¹²His eyes as doves by streams of water, Washing in milk, sitting in fulness. ¹³His cheeks as a bed of the spice, towers of perfumes, His lips are lilies, dropping flowing myrrh, ¹⁴His hands rings of gold, set with beryl, His heart bright ivory, covered with sapphires, ¹⁵His limbs pillars of marble, Founded on sockets of fine gold, His appearance as Lebanon, choice as the cedars. ¹⁶His mouth is sweetness—and all of him desirable, This is my beloved, and this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!

Chapter 6

¹Whither hath thy beloved gone, O fair among women? Whither hath thy beloved turned, And we seek him with thee? ²My beloved went down to his garden, To the beds of the spice, To delight himself in the gardens, and to gather lilies. ³I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, Who is delighting himself among the lilies.

⁴Fair art thou, my friend, as Tirzah, Comely as Jerusalem, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts. ⁵Turn round thine eyes from before me, Because they have made me proud. Thy hair is as a row of the goats, That have shone from Gilead, ⁶Thy teeth as a row of the lambs, That have come up from the washing, Because all of them are forming twins, And a bereaved one is not among them. ⁷As the work of the pomegranate is thy temple behind thy veil. ⁸Sixty are queens, and eighty concubines, And virgins without number. ⁹One is my dove, my perfect one, One she is of her mother, The choice one she is of her that bare her, Daughters saw, and pronounce her happy, Queens and concubines, and they praise her. ¹⁰‘Who is this that is looking forth as morning, Fair as the moon—clear as the sun, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts?’

¹¹Unto a garden of nuts I went down, To look on the buds of the valley, To see whither the vine had flourished, The pomegranates had blossomed— ¹²I knew not my soul, It made me—chariots of…