Song of Songs

Chapter 1

1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your breasts are better than wine,

3 and the fragrance of your perfumes is better than all spices; your name is perfume poured out. Therefore the maidens have loved you,

4 they have drawn you; we will run after you toward the fragrance of your perfumes. The king brought me into his chamber. Let us rejoice and be glad in you; we will love your breasts more than wine; uprightness has loved you.

5 I am dark and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

6 Do not look upon me, because I am darkened, because the sun has looked askance at me; my mother's sons fought against me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept.

7 Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where do you pasture your flock, where do you make it lie down at midday, lest I become like one wandering veiled among the flocks of your companions.

8 If you do not know yourself, O beautiful one among women, go out in the footsteps of the flocks and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds.

9 To my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh I have compared you, my companion.

10 How beautiful are your cheeks, like turtledoves, your neck like strings of jewels!

11 We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver.

12 While the king was at his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.

13 My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh; he shall lodge between my breasts.

14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna in the vineyards of Engedi.

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

16 Behold, you are handsome, my beloved, indeed lovely; our bed is shaded; 17the beams of our houses are cedars, our rafters cypresses.

Chapter 2

1 I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys.

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

3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons; in his shadow I desired and sat down, and his fruit was sweet in my throat.

4 Bring me into the house of wine; set love in order over me.

5 Sustain me with cakes, heap me up with apples, for I am wounded with love.

6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

7 I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, that you not rouse nor awaken love until it please.

8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9 My beloved is like the gazelle or a fawn of the deer upon the mountains of Bethel. Behold, he stands behind our wall, peering through the windows, peeping through the lattices.

10 My beloved answers and says to me: Arise, come, my companion, my fair one, my dove;

11 for behold, the winter has passed, the rain has gone, it has departed for itself;

12 the flowers have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come, the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land;

13 the fig tree has put forth its young figs, the vines are in bloom, they have given forth fragrance. Arise, come, my companion, my fair one, my dove;

14 and come, my dove, in the shelter of the rock, close by the outer wall; show me your face and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely.

15 Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards, for our vines are in bloom.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his, he who pastures among the lilies,

17 until the day breathes and the shadows are stirred. Turn back; be like, my beloved, the gazelle or a fawn of the deer upon the mountains of the ravines.

Chapter 3

1 On my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loved; I sought him and did not find him; I called him, and he did not answer me.

2 I will rise now and go about the city, in the markets and in the streets, and I will seek him whom my soul loved; I sought him and did not find him.

3 The watchmen who go about the city found me: "Have you seen him whom my soul loved?"

4 Scarcely had I passed by them when I found him whom my soul loved; I held him and would not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

5 I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of the perfumer?

7 Behold, the bed of Solomon: sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel,

8 all holding a sword, trained in war, each man with his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

9 King Solomon made himself a litter of the woods of Lebanon;

10 he made its pillars of silver, and its back of gold, its seat of purple; within it a pavement of stones, love from the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go out and behold King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the gladness of his heart.

Chapter 4

1 Behold, you are beautiful, my companion; behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like flocks of goats that have been revealed from Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and there is not a barren one among them.

3 Your lips are like a scarlet cord, and your speech is lovely. Your cheek is like the rind of a pomegranate behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built for Thalpioth; a thousand shields hang upon it, all the darts of the mighty.

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

6 Until the day breathes and the shadows are stirred, I will take myself to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

7 You are wholly beautiful, my companion, and there is no blemish in you.

8 Come from Lebanon, bride, come from Lebanon; you shall come and pass over from the beginning of faith, from the head of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

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

10 How beautiful your breasts have become, my sister bride! How beautiful your breasts are beyond wine, and the scent of your garments beyond all spices.

11 Your lips drip honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.

12 A garden enclosed is my sister bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.

13 Your shoots are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruit of orchard trees, henna with nard,

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with all the woods of Lebanon, myrrh and aloes with all the finest perfumes,

15 a fountain of gardens, a well of living water rushing down from Lebanon.

16 Awake, north wind, and come, south wind; breathe upon my garden, and let my spices flow. Let my beloved come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his orchard trees.

Chapter 5

1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spices; I have eaten my bread with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink, and be drunk, O brothers.

2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. The voice of my beloved—he knocks at the door: "Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night."

3 I have taken off my tunic; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I soil them?

4 My beloved put in his hand through the opening, and my inward parts were stirred for him.

5 I rose up to open to my beloved; my hands dripped myrrh, my fingers abundant myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had passed by; my soul went out at his word. I sought him, and I did not find him; I called him, and he did not answer me.

7 The watchmen who go about in the city found me; they struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

8 I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field: if you find my beloved, what shall you tell him? That I am wounded with love.

9 What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fair one among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you have so adjured us?

10 My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out from ten thousands.

11 His head is gold and phaz; his locks are fir shoots, black as a raven.

12 His eyes are as doves by the fullness of waters, washed in milk, sitting by the fullness of waters.

13 His cheeks are as bowls of spice yielding perfumes; his lips are lilies dripping abundant myrrh.

14 His hands are turned gold, filled with tharsis; his belly is an ivory tablet upon a sapphire stone.

15 His legs are marble pillars set upon golden bases; his appearance is as Lebanon, choice as the cedars.

16 His throat is sweetness, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Chapter 6

1 Where has your beloved gone, O beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned his gaze? — that we may seek him with you.

2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the bowls of spice, to pasture among the gardens and to gather lilies.

3 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, he who pastures among the lilies.

4 You are beautiful, my companion, as good pleasure, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as armies drawn up in array.

5 Turn away your eyes from before me, for they have set me aflutter. Your hair is like flocks of goats that have appeared from Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like flocks of shorn sheep that have come up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and none among them is barren.

7 Your lips are like a scarlet cord, and your speech is lovely. Your cheek is like the rind of a pomegranate behind your veil.

8 There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.

9 One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the chosen one of her who bore her. Daughters saw her and will call her blessed; queens and concubines, and they will praise her.

10 Who is this who looks forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, choice as the sun, awesome as armies drawn up in array?

11 I went down to the garden of nut trees to look at the fruits of the ravine, to see whether the vine had blossomed, whether the pomegranates had flowered; there I will give you my breasts.

12 My soul did not know; it made me as the chariots of Aminadab.

Chapter 7

1 Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may gaze upon you. What will you see in the Shulammite? She who comes like the dances of the camps.

2 How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of Nadab! The curves of your thighs are like necklaces, the work of a craftsman's hands.

3 Your navel is a turned bowl, never lacking mixed wine; your belly is a heap of wheat fenced about with lilies.

4 Your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a gazelle.

5 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, looking toward the face of Damascus.

6 Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the braided hair of your head like purple; a king is held captive in its tresses.

7 How beautiful you are, and how sweet, O love, in your delights!

8 This your stature is like the palm tree, and your breasts like clusters.

9 I said, I will climb up into the palm tree, I will take hold of its heights; and your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the scent of your nose like apples,

10 and your throat like good wine, going down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over my lips and teeth.

11 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.

12 Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field; let us lodge in the villages.

13 Let us rise early for the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has blossomed, whether the blossom has opened, whether the pomegranates have flowered; there I will give you my breasts.

14 The mandrakes have given forth their scent, and at our doors are all choice fruits, new and old, which I have kept for you, my beloved.

Chapter 8

1 Oh, that you were like my brother, who nursed at my mother's breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and indeed no one would despise me.

2 I would take you and bring you into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me; I would give you spiced wine to drink, from the juice of my pomegranates.

3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.

4 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

5 Who is this coming up, clothed in white, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother travailed with you, there she who bore you travailed with you.

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as Hades; its darts are darts of fire, its flames.

7 Much water cannot quench love, and rivers will not drown it; if a man were to give all his substance for love, they would utterly despise him.

8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, let us build upon her battlements of silver; and if she is a door, let us carve upon her a panel of cedar.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; I was in his eyes as one who finds peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon; he gave his vineyard to keepers; each man was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12 My own vineyard is before me; the thousand are yours, Solomon, and the two hundred are for those who keep its fruit.

13 O you who sit in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.

14 Flee, my beloved, and be like the gazelle or the young of the deer upon the mountains of spices.