Solomon’s Most Wonderful Song

The Woman to the Man She Loves

²Cover me with kisses. For your love is better than wine. ³Your perfume smells wonderful, but your name* is sweeter than the best perfume. That is why the young women love you. ⁴Take me with you! Let’s run away! The king took me into his room.

The Women of Jerusalem to the Man

We will rejoice and be happy for you. Remember, your love is better than wine. With good reason the young women love you.

She Speaks to the Women

⁵Daughters of Jerusalem, I am dark and beautiful, as black as the tents of Kedar and Salma.* ⁶Don’t look at how dark I am, at how dark the sun has made me. My brothers were angry at me. They forced me to take care of their vineyards. So I could not take care of myself.*

She Speaks to Him

⁷I love you with all my soul! Tell me; Where do you feed {your sheep}? Where do you lay {them} down at noon? {I should come to be with you} or I will be like a hired woman* caring for the sheep of your friends!

He Speaks to Her

⁸You are such a beautiful woman! Surely you know what to do. Go, follow the sheep. Feed your young goats near the shepherds’ tents. ⁹My darling, you are more exciting to me than any mare among the stallions* pulling Pharaoh’s chariots.* {Those horses have beautiful decorations at the side of their faces and around their necks.} ^10–11Here are the decorations made for you, a golden headband* and a silver necklace. Your cheeks are so beautiful decorated with gold. Your neck is so beautiful laced with silver.

She Speaks

¹²The smell of my perfume reaches out to the king lying on his couch. ¹³My lover is like a small bag of myrrh* {around my neck}, lying all night between my breasts. ¹⁴My lover is like a cluster of henna* flowers near the vineyards of En-gedi.

He Speaks

¹⁵My darling, you are so beautiful! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.

She Speaks

¹⁶You are so handsome, my lover! Yes, and so charming! Our bed is so fresh and pleasant!* ¹⁷The beams of our house are cedar. The rafters are fir.

name In Hebrew this word sounds like the word “perfume.” Kedar and Salma Arabian tribes. For “Salma” the Hebrew has “Solomon,” but compare “Salma, Salmon” in Ruth 4:20–21. myself Literally, “my own vineyard.” hired woman Or, “a woman wearing a veil.” This might mean a prostitute. mare … stallions Female and male horses. Only male horses were used to pull chariots. My darling … chariots Literally, “To a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots I compare you, my darling.” headband We don’t know the exact meaning of this Hebrew word. It might be a headband with decorations dangling at the cheeks. myrrh A perfume made from the gum of certain plants. henna A plant with sweet smelling, blue-yellow flowers that grow in clusters (groups) like grapes. fresh and pleasant Or, “lush and green” like a fresh field of grass.

2 I am a crocus on the plain,* a lily in the valleys.

He Speaks

²My darling, among other women, you are like a lily among thorns!

She Speaks

³My lover, among other men, you are an apple tree among the wild trees in the forest!

She Speaks to the Women

I enjoy sitting in my lover’s shadow; his fruit is so sweet to my taste. ⁴My lover took me to the wine house; His intent toward me was love. ⁵Strengthen me with raisins;* refresh me with apples, because I am weak with love.* ⁶My lover’s left arm is under my head, and his right arm holds me. ⁷Women of Jerusalem, promise me, by the gazelles and wild deer, don’t wake love, don’t arouse love, until I am ready.*

She Speaks Again

⁸I hear my lover’s voice. Here it comes, jumping over the mountains, skipping over the hills. ⁹My lover is like a gazelle or a young deer. Look at him standing behind our wall, staring out the window, looking through the lattice.* ¹⁰My lover speaks to me, “Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, let’s go away! ¹¹Look, winter is past, the rains have come and gone. ¹²The flowers are blooming in the fields. It’s time to sing!* Listen, the doves have returned. ¹³Young figs are growing on the fig trees. Smell the vines in bloom. Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, let’s go away!” ¹⁴My dove, hiding in the caves high on the cliff, hidden here on the mountain, let me see you, let me hear your voice. Your voice is so pleasant, and you are so beautiful!

She Speaks to the Women

¹⁵Catch the foxes for us—the little foxes that spoil the vineyard! Our vineyard is now in bloom. ¹⁶My lover is mine, and I am his! My lover feeds among the lilies, ¹⁷while the day breathes its last breath and the shadows run away. Turn, my lover, be like a gazelle or a young deer on the cleft mountains!*

crocus on the plain Or, “a rose of Sharon.” raisins Or, “raisin cakes.” I am weak with love Or, “I am lovesick.” until I am ready Literally, “until it desires.” lattice A wooden screen over a window. sing Or, “prune.”

the cleft mountains Or, “the mountains of Bether” or “the mountains of spice.”

She Speaks

3 At night on my bed, I look for the man I love. I looked for him, but I could not find him! ²I will get up now! I will go around the city. In the streets and squares, I will look for the man I love. I looked for him, but I could not find him! ³The guards patrolling the city found me. {I asked them,} “Have you seen the man I love?” ⁴I had just left the guards when I found the man I love! I held him. I would not let him go, while I took him to my mother’s house, to the room of she who bore* me.

She Speaks to the Women

⁵Women of Jerusalem, promise me, by the gazelles and wild deer, don’t wake love, don’t arouse love, until I am ready.*

He and His Bride

⁶Who is this woman coming from the desert* {with this large group of people}? {The dust rises behind them} like clouds of smoke from burning myrrh and frankincense* and other spices.* ⁷Look, Solomon’s traveling chair!* There are 60 soldiers guarding it. Strong soldiers of Israel! ⁸All of them are trained fighting men; their swords at their side, ready for any danger of the night! ⁹King Solomon made a traveling chair* for himself. The wood came from Lebanon. ¹⁰The poles were made from silver, the supports were made from gold. The seat was covered with purple cloth. It was inlaid with love by the women of Jerusalem. ¹¹Women of Zion, come out and see King Solomon. See the crown* his mother put on him the day he was married, the day he was so happy!

bore Or, “taught.” See 8:2. until I am ready Literally, “until it desires.” woman coming from the desert See 8:5. myrrh and frankincense Expensive spices that smell sweet when burned. spices Literally, “powders of the trader.” These were imported spices and incense. traveling chair A kind of chair that rich people traveled in. These chairs were covered and had poles that slaves used to carry them. crown This might be a wreath of flowers he wore on his head at his wedding.

He Speaks to Her

4 My darling, you are so beautiful! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves under your veil. Your hair {is long and flowing}, like little goats dancing down the slopes of Mount Gilead. ²Your teeth are white like ewes* just coming from their bath. They all give birth to twins; not one of them has lost a baby. ³Your lips are like a red silk thread. Your mouth is beautiful. Your temples* under your veil are like two slices of pomegranate.* ⁴Your neck is long and thin like David’s tower. That tower was built to be decorated* with a thousand shields on its walls, with the shields of powerful soldiers. ⁵Your breasts are like twin fawns,* like twins of a gazelle,* feeding among the lilies. ⁶I will go to that mountain of myrrh* and to that hill of frankincense* while the day breathes its last breath, and the shadows run away. ⁷My darling, you are beautiful all over. You have no blemishes* anywhere! ⁸Come with me, my bride, from Lebanon. Come with me from Lebanon. Come from the peak of Amana,* from the top of Senir* and Hermon, from the lion’s caves, from the mountain of the leopards! ⁹My darling,* my bride, you excite me! You have stolen my heart with just one of your eyes, with just one of the jewels from your necklace. ¹⁰Your love is so beautiful, my darling,* my bride! Your love is better than wine; the smell of your perfume is better than any kind of spice! ¹¹My bride, your lips drip honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes smell as sweet as perfume.* ¹²My darling,* my bride, {you are pure} like a locked garden, you are like a locked pool, a closed fountain. ¹³Your limbs are like a garden filled with pomegranates* and other pleasant fruit; with all the best spices: henna,* ¹⁴nard,* saffron,* calamus,* and cinnamon.* {Your limbs are like a garden} filled with trees of frankincense,* myrrh* and aloes.* ¹⁵You are like a garden fountain, a well of fresh water, flowing down from the mountains of Lebanon.

She Speaks

¹⁶Wake up, north wind! Come, south wind! Blow on my garden. Spread its sweet smell. Let my lover enter his garden, and eat its pleasant fruit.

ewes Female goats. temples The sides of the head. pomegranate A red fruit with many tiny seeds inside it. Each seed is covered with a soft, tasty part of the fruit. Your neck … decorated Or “Your neck is like David’s tower, built with rows of stone.” This would mean she wore many necklaces, one above the other, which looked like rows of stone in a tower. fawns Baby deer. gazelle An animal like a deer or antelope. myrrh A kind of perfume made from the sap of plants. frankincense An expensive perfume from Arabia. blemishes Ugly marks. Amana The name of a mountain in Lebanon. Senir The Amorite word for “Snow Mountain.” This means Mount Hermon. darling Literally, “sister.” perfume Or, “Lebanon.” henna A plant with sweet smelling, blue-yellow flowers that grow in clusters (groups) like grapes. nard A very expensive oil from the root from the nard plant. It was used as a perfume. saffron A kind of yellow flower used in making perfume. calamus A kind of reed plant used in making perfume. cinnamon A kind of plant used as a spice and in making perfume. aloes Perfume made from a special kind of tree.