1Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. 2 May he kiss me with kisses of his mouth! For your breasts are better than wine, 3 and the scent of your ointment better than all spices; your name is an ointment poured out. On account of this, young women have fallen in love with you. 4 They drew you away. We will run after you following the scent of your ointments. The king has brought me into his chamber. Let us exult and make merry with you. We will love your breasts more than wine. Uprightness has loved you. Woman 5 I am black and beautiful, daughters of Israel, like the tents of Kedar, like the leather curtains of Solomon. 6 Do not look upon me, for I am blackened because the sun has looked down upon me. The sons of my mother fought with me. They made me a guard in the vineyards; I have not guarded my vineyard. 7 Tell me, you whom my soul has loved: Where do you tend flocks? Where do you bring them to rest at noon? lest I become like a woman who clothes herself near a herd of your companions. Man 8 If you do not know yourself, O most beautiful of women,a go out in the footsteps of the flocks and tend your goats at the tents of the shepherds. 9 To my mare amongst the chariot horses of Pharaoh I have compared you, my close one. 10 How lovely have your cheeks become, like turtle doves, your neck like necklaces! 11 We will make images of gold for you with studs of silver. Woman 12 While the king was reclining, my nard gave off its scent.[1] 13 My beloved is a bundle of myrrh for me 14 in the vineyards of En-gedi. Man 15 Look! You are beautiful, my close one. Look! You are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Woman 16 Look! You are beautiful, my beloved, and lovely, too! What’s more, our bed is shaded.
2The beams of our houses are cedar trees; our rafters are cypress trees. 2 I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the hollows. Man 2 Like a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my close one between the daughters. Woman 3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved between the sons. In his shade I have felt desire and sat down, and his fruit is sweet in my throat. 4 Bring me into the house of wine; array love over me. 5 Strengthen me with perfumes, overwhelm me with apples, for I am wounded by love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. Man 7 I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by powers and by forces of the field: Cursed if you awaken and rouse love until it wants. Woman 8 The voice of my beloved! Look! He has come, leaping over the mountains, jumping over the hills. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a deer fawn upon the mountains of Bethel. Look! He is behind our wall, looking through the windows, peeping out through the lattices. 10 My beloved replies and says to me, “Rise! Come, my close one, my beautiful one, my dove! 11 For look, the winter has departed; the rain has gone—it went away by itself. 12 The flowers have appeared on the earth, the time of pruning has arrived, the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land; 13 the fig tree has borne its figs, the vines are blossoming, they have given off a scent. Rise! Come, my close one, my beautiful one, my dove, and come, 14 you my dove, under the shelter of the rock, near the outer wall; show me your face, and let me hear your voice, for your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely.” 15 Catch the foxes for us, the little ones destroying the vineyards; and our vines are blossoming. 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his; he who tends flocks among the lilies 17 until the day blows away, and the shadows move. Return! Beloved, make yourself like the gazelle or a deer fawn upon the mountains with hollows.
3On my bed at nighta I sought him whom my soul loved. I sought him, and I did not find him; I called him, and he did not listen to me. 2 I will get up then and go around the city, in the marketplaces and in the streets, and I will seek him whom my soul loved. I sought him, and I did not find him. 3 The watchmen found me, those who go around in the city: “Have you not seen him whom my soul loved?” 4 How little time it was after I went away from them before I found him whom my soul loved. I took hold of him, and I did not let him loose until they brought him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of she who conceived me. Man 5 I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the forces of the field: Cursed if you awaken and rouse love until it wants. Solomon’s Wedding 6 Who is this woman coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of a perfumer? 7 Look! The bed of Solomon, sixty mighty ones round about it, of the mighty ones of Israel, 8 all of them holding a sword, instructed in battle; as for each man, his sword is upon his thigh because of the terror at night.b 9 King Solomon made a sedan chair for himself from the trees of Lebanon. 10 He made its pillars silver and its back golden; its steps are purple; inside of it is a mosaic, as love from the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Come out and look at King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of the merriment of his heart. Man
4Look! You are beautiful, my close one! Look, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves outside of your veil; your hair is like herds of goats that have been revealed from Gilead. 2 Your teeth are like herds of shorn sheep that have come up from the bath, every one bearing twins, and there is no barren one among them. 3 Your lips are like scarlet thread, and your speech is lovely; your cheek is like the skin of a pomegranate outside of your veil. 4 Your neck is like David’s tower, the one built up into Thalpioth;a a thousand shields hang on it, all the javelins of the mighty ones. 5 Your two breasts are like two twin gazelle fawns that are pastured among lilies. 6 Before the day blows away and the shadows move, I will go by myself to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of Lebanon. 7 You are altogether beautiful, my close one, and you are flawless.b 8 Come from Lebanon, bride, come from Lebanon! You shall come, and you shall come across from the beginning of faith, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the leopards’ mountains. 9 You have heartened us, my sister, my bride; you have heartened us with one of your eyes, in a single woman, in the treasure of your necks.c 10 How have your breasts become more beautiful from wine? And the scent of your garments is beyond all spices. 11 Your lips drip with honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon. 12 My sister, bride is a locked garden, a locked garden, a sealed spring. 13 Your giftsa are an orchard with the fruit of fruit trees; henna with nard, 14 nard and saffron, reed and cinnamon, with all the trees of Lebanon; myrrh of Aloth with all the first perfumes; 15 a spring of a garden and a well of water, living and rippling from Lebanon. Woman 16 Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, and blow through my garden, and let my spices flow.
5bLet my beloved come down into his garden, and may he eat the fruit of its fruit trees. Man cI entered the garden, my sister, my bride; I gathered my myrrh with my spices; I ate my bread with my honey; I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, close ones, and drink and become drunk, brothers! Woman 2 I am sleeping, and my heart is awake. My beloved’s voice! He is knocking on the door: “Open up for me, my sister, my close one, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of night!” 3 I took off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I washed my feet; how shall I soil them? 4 My beloved sent his hand out from the opening, and my belly leapt for him. 5 I rose to open up for my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers were filled with myrrh, on the hands of the bolt. 6 I opened up for my beloved; my beloved went by; my soul went out at his word. I sought him, and I did not find him; I called him, and he did not listen to me. 7 The guards who go around the city found me; they struck me; they wounded me; the guards of the city walls took my summer garment from me. Woman 8 I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the forces of the field: If you find my beloved, what shall you tell him? That I am wounded by love. Daughters of Jerusalem 9 What distinguishes your beloved from any other beloved, O most beautiful of women? What distinguishes your beloved from any other beloved, that you made us swear like this? Woman 10 My beloved is white and redheaded, picked from myriads. 11 His head is gold and phaz;a his locks are fir trees, black like a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves on an abundance of water, bathed in milk, sitting on an abundance. 13 His cheeks are like bowls of spice that produce perfumes; his lips are dripping lilies full of myrrh. 14 His hands are engraved, golden, filled with Tarshish. His belly is an ivory tablet on a sapphire. 15 His legs are marble pillars set on golden bases; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice like cedar trees. 16 His throat is sweetness and the whole of it is desire. This is my beloved, and this is my close one, daughters of Jerusalem. Daughters of Jerusalem 17 bWhere has your beloved gone, O most beautiful of women? Where has your beloved turned his attention? We shall seek him with you! Woman
6My brother went down into his garden, to the bowls of spice, to tend flocks in the gardens and to gather lilies. 2 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, he who shepherds among the lilies. Man 3 You are beautiful, my close one, like goodwill, lovely like Jerusalem, astonishing like women arrayed! 4 Turn your eyes away from me, for they have excited me. Your hair is like herds of goats that have appeared from Gilead; 5 your teeth are like herds of shorn sheep that have come up from the bath, every one bearing twins, and there is no barren one among them; your lips are like scarlet thread, and your speech is lovely. 6 Your cheek is like the skin of a pomegranate outside of your veil. 7 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and young women too many to count. 8 My dove is the only one, my perfect one; she is the one for her mother; she is the choicest for the one who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her happy, queens and even the concubines, and they will praise her. Daughters of Jerusalem 9 Who is this, peeping out like the dawn, beautiful like the moon, choicest like the sun, astonishing like women arrayed? Woman 10 I went down into the garden of nut trees to look at the products of the brook, to see if the vine had blossomed, the pomegranates had bloomed. There I will give you my breasts. 11 My soul did not know: It madea me Aminadab’s chariots. Daughters of Jerusalem 12 bReturn, return, O Shulammite. Return, return, and we will look at you. Woman
7Why will youc look upon the Shulammite? She who comes like the dances of the encampments. Man How lovely have become your steps in sandals, daughter of Nadab! The rhythms of your thighs are like necklaces, a craftsman’s work.d 2 Your navel is an engraved mixing bowl that does not lack mixed drink; your belly is a heap of grain, fenced in with lilies. 3 Your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a gazelle; 4 your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon, by the gates of the daughter of many. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, watching the face of Damascus; 5 your head upon you is like Carmel, and the braid of your head is like purple, a king bound in galleries. 6 How lovely have you become, and how sweet, my love, in your delights? 7 This stature of yours: you became like a date palm, and your breasts like clusters of grapes. 8 I said, “I will climb up the date palm, I will take hold of its heights; and then your breasts will be like clusters of grapes of the vine; and the scent of your nose like apples; 9 and your throat like good wine going straight to my beloved, satisfying my lips and teeth.” Woman 10 I am my beloved’s, and his attention is on me. 11 Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field; let us spend the night in the villages; 12 let us go early into the vineyards; let us see if the vine has blossomed, the blooms have blossomed, the pomegranates have blossomed. There I will give you my breasts. 13 The mandrakes have given off a scent; and by our doors all the fruits, from the new to the old, I have kept for you, my beloved.
8Who could make you my beloved, sucking at my mother’s breasts? When I find you outside, I will kiss you, and, what is more, they will not scorn me. 2 I will take you along; I will bring you into my mother’s house and into the chamber of the woman who conceived me. I will give you to drink from perfumed wine, from the juice of your pomegranates. 3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. Man 4 I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the forces of the field, Cursed if you raise and rouse love until it wants. Daughters of Jerusalem 5 Who is this coming up, whitened, leaning upon her beloved? Man Under an apple tree I roused you; there your mother was in labor with you, there she who bore you was in labor with you. Woman 6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong like death; jealousy is hard like Hades, its sparks are sparks of fire, its flames. 7 Much water will be unable to quench love, and rivers will not drown it. If a man gives his whole life for love, they will scorn him with scorn. Siblings 8 We have a small sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when it is spoken in her? 9 If she is a wall, let us build battlements of silver upon her; and if she is a door, let us lay a board of cedar upon her. Woman 10 I am a wall, and my breasts towers. I was, in their eyes, like one who finds peace. 11 Solomon acquired a vineyard at Baal-hamon. He gave his vineyard to the keepers. A man will bring a thousand pieces of silver in its fruit. 12 My vineyard is mine before me. The thousand, Solomon, and the two hundred are for those who keep its fruit. 13 Youa who sit in the gardens, companions are paying attention to your voice. Let me hear it! 14 Flee, my beloved, and make yourself like the gazelle or the deer fawn upon the mountains of spices.