Song of Songs

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
    for your love is better than wine.
³ Your oils have a pleasing fragrance.
    Your name is oil poured out,
    therefore the virgins love you.
⁴ Take me away with you.
    Let’s hurry.
    The king has brought me into his rooms.

We will be glad and rejoice in you.
    We will praise your love more than wine!

They are right to love you.
⁵ I am dark, but lovely,
    you daughters of Jerusalem,
    like Kedar’s tents,
    like Solomon’s curtains.
⁶ Don’t stare at me because I am dark,
    because the sun has scorched me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me.
    They made me keeper of the vineyards.
    I haven’t kept my own vineyard.
⁷ Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
    where you graze your flock,
    where you rest them at noon;
    for why should I be as one who is veiled
    beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸ If you don’t know, most beautiful among women,
    follow the tracks of the sheep.
    Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

¹¹ We will make you earrings of gold,
    with studs of silver.

¹² While the king sat at his table,
    my perfume spread its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh,
    that lies between my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
    from the vineyards of En Gedi.

¹⁵ Behold, ^[a] you are beautiful, my love.
    Behold, you are beautiful.
    Your eyes are like doves.

¹⁶ Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant;
    and our couch is verdant.

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars.
    Our rafters are firs.

¹  I am a rose of Sharon,
    a lily of the valleys.

² As a lily among thorns,
    so is my love among the daughters.

³ As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
    so is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight,
    his fruit was sweet to my taste.
⁴ He brought me to the banquet hall.
    His banner over me is love.
⁵ Strengthen me with raisins,
    refresh me with apples;
    for I am faint with love.
⁶ His left hand is under my head.
    His right hand embraces me.
⁷ I 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.

¹⁴ My dove in the clefts of the rock,
    in the hiding places of the mountainside,
    let me see your face.
    let me hear your voice;
    for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
¹⁵ Catch for us the foxes,
    the little foxes that plunder the vineyards;
    for our vineyards are in blossom.

¹⁶ My beloved is mine, and I am his.
    He browses among the lilies.
¹⁷ Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
    turn, my beloved,
    and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.

¹⁶ Awake, 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.

¹  I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
    I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
    I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
    I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends!
    Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.

² I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
    It is the voice of my beloved who knocks:
    “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;
    for my head is filled with dew,
    and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
³ I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on?
    I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
⁴ My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening.
    My heart pounded for him.
⁵ I rose up to open for my beloved.
    My hands dripped with myrrh,
    my fingers with liquid myrrh,
    on the handles of the lock.
⁶ I opened to my beloved;
    but my beloved left, and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
    I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
    I called him, but he didn’t answer.
⁷ The watchmen who go about the city found me.
    They beat me.
    They bruised me.
    The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.

⁹ How is your beloved better than another beloved,
    you fairest among women?
How is your beloved better than another beloved,
that you do so adjure us?

¹⁰ My beloved is white and ruddy.
    The best among ten thousand.
¹¹ His head is like the purest gold.
    His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks,
    washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
¹³ His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes.
    His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl.
    His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
¹⁵ His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold.
    His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness;
    yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
    daughters of Jerusalem.

¹  Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women?
    Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
    to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
    He browses among the lilies.

⁴ You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah,
    lovely as Jerusalem,
    awesome as an army with banners.
⁵ Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
    that lie along the side of Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
    which have come up from the washing,
    of which every one has twins;
    not one is bereaved among them.
⁷ Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

¹³ Return, return, Shulammite!
    Return, return, that we may gaze at you.

Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite,
    as at the dance of Mahanaim?

¹⁰ I am my beloved’s.
    His desire is toward me.
¹¹ Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field.
    Let’s lodge in the villages.
¹² Let’s go early up to the vineyards.
    Let’s see whether the vine has budded,
    its blossom is open,
    and the pomegranates are in flower.
    There I will give you my love.
¹³ The mandrakes produce fragrance.
    At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old,
    which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

⁵ Who is this who comes up from the wilderness,
    leaning on her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
    There your mother conceived you.
    There she was in labor and bore you.

⁸ We have a little sister.
    She has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
    in the day when she is to be spoken for?

¹⁰ I am a wall, and my breasts like towers,
    then I was in his eyes like one who found peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon.
    He leased out the vineyard to keepers.
    Each was to bring a thousand shekels ^[c] of silver for its fruit.
¹² My own vineyard is before me.
    The thousand are for you, Solomon,
    two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

¹³ You who dwell in the gardens, with friends in attendance,
    let me hear your voice!

¹⁴ Come away, my beloved!
    Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!