1 1:1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; ³ your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. ⁴Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.

Others

We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

She

⁵I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. ⁶Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon 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 veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

⁸If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.¹⁰Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

Others

¹¹We will make for you[2] ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

She

¹²While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. ¹³My beloved is to me a sachet 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.

She

¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; ¹⁷ the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.

[1] The translators have added speaker identifications based on the gender and number of the Hebrew words [2] The Hebrew for you is feminine singular

2 2:1 I am a rose[3] of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

²As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.

She

³As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste, ⁴He brought me to the banqueting house,[4] and his banner over me was love. ⁵Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. ⁶His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! ⁷I adjure you,[5] O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

The Bride Adores Her Beloved

⁸The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. ⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice. ¹⁰My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, ¹¹for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. ¹²The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing[6] has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. ¹³The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. ¹⁴O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. ¹⁵Catch the foxes[7] for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

¹⁶My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes[8] among the lilies. ¹⁷Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains.[9]

[3] Probably a bulb, such as a crocus, asphodel, or narcissus [4] Hebrew the house of wine [5] That is, I put you on oath; so throughout the Song [6] Or pruning [7] Or jackals [8] Or he pastures his flock [9] Or mountains of Bether

3 The Bride’s Dream

3:1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not. ²I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not. ³The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” ⁴Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. ⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Solomon Arrives for the Wedding

⁶What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant? ⁷Behold, it is the litter[10] of Solomon! Around it are sixty mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel, ⁸all of them wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh, against terror by night. ⁹King Solomon made himself a carriage[11] from the wood of Lebanon. ¹⁰He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.

[10] That is, the couch on which servants carry a king [11] Or sedan chair

4Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

4:1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. ²Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. ³Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. ⁴Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone;^[12]on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. ⁵Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. ⁶Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. ⁷You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. ⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart[13] from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

⁹You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. ¹⁰How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! ¹¹Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. ¹²A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed. ¹³Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, ¹⁴nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices— ¹⁵a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.

¹⁶Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow.

Together in the Garden of Love

She

Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

[12] The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [13] Or Look