Song of Solomon 3-4

Song of Solomon 3

¹By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.

²I will get up 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 I didn’t find him.

³The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴I had scarcely passed from 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, into the room of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires.

⁶Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant?

⁷Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.

Song of Solomon 4

¹Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.

²Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them.

³Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

⁴Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory, on which a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.

⁵Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed among the lilies.

⁶Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.

⁷You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

⁹You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.

¹⁰How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!

¹¹Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

¹²My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.

¹³Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants,

¹⁴spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,

¹⁵a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon.

¹⁶Awake, north wind, and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.