Song of Songs 1:1-4:16

1Solomon’s Song of Songs. She The main male and female speakers (identified primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms) are indicated by the captions He and She respectively. The words of others are marked Friends. In some instances the divisions and their captions are debatable.

2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

3Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you!

4Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. Friends We rejoice and delight in you The Hebrew is masculine singular. ; we will praise your love more than wine. She How right they are to adore you!

5Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Or Salma

6Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect.

7Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends? Friends

8If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds. He

9I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.

10Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

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

12While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

13My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. He

15How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves. She

16How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant. He 17The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

1She Or He I am a rose Probably a member of the crocus family of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. He

2Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women. She

3Like an apple Or possibly apricot; here and elsewhere in Song of Songs tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love.

5Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

6His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

7Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

8Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

10My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.

11See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

12Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

13The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” He

14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

15Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. She

16My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies. 17Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills. Or the hills of Bether

1All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

2I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

3The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

4Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

5Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

6Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

7Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,

8all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.

9King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.

10Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem, 11come out, and look, you daughters of Zion. Look Or interior lovingly inlaid / by the daughters of Jerusalem. / 11 Come out, you daughters of Zion, / and look on King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.

1He How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.

2Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.

3Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.

4Your neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. ; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

5Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.

6Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.

7You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of leopards.

9You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

10How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!

11Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

12You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

13Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,

14nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.

15You are Or I am (spoken by She) a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. She 16Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.