² Let 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.
⁴ Draw me after you; let us run.
    The king has brought me into his chambers.

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

⁵ I am very dark, but lovely,
    O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
    like the curtains of Solomon.
⁶ Do 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!
⁷ Tell 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?

⁸ If 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.

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

¹² While the king was on his couch,
    my nard gave forth 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
    in the vineyards of Engedi.

¹⁵ Behold, you are beautiful, my love;
    behold, you are beautiful;
    your eyes are doves.

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

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

³ As 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.
⁴ He brought me to the banqueting house,
    and his banner over me was love.
⁵ Sustain me with raisins;
    refresh me with apples,
    for I am sick with love.
⁶ His left hand is under my head,
    and his right hand embraces me!
⁷ I 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.

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

3 On my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
    I sought him, but found him not.
² I 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.
³ The watchmen found me
    as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
⁴ Scarcely 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.
⁵ I 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.

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