Song of Solomon 1-3
Complete Jewish Bible
1 The Ultimate Song, by Shlomo:
[She]
2 Let him smother me with kisses from his mouth,
for your love is better than wine.
3 Your anointing oils have a wonderful fragrance;
your name is like anointing oil poured out.
This is why young women love you —
4 “Take me with you. We will run after you.”
The king has brought me into his rooms.
[Chorus]
We will be glad and rejoice for you.
We will praise your love more than wine.
How right it is for them to love you!
[She]
5 I am dark tan but beautiful,
you daughters of Yerushalayim,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Shlomo.
6 Don’t stare at me because I’m dark;
it’s the sun that tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me look after the vineyards.
But I haven’t cared for my own vineyard.
7 Tell me, my love, where you pasture your flock,
where you have them rest at noon;
for why should I veil myself [like a whore]
beside the flocks of your friends?
[Chorus]
8 If you do not know,
you most beautiful of women,
then follow the footprints of the flock
and let your kids graze by the shepherds’ tents.
[He]
9 My love, I compare you with my mare,
pulling one of Pharaoh’s chariots —
10 your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with its strings of beads;
11 we will make you ornaments
of gold, studded with silver.
[She]
12 As the king reclines at table,
my nard gives forth its perfume:
13 to me the man I love is a sachet of myrrh
lodged between my breasts;
14 to me the man I love is a spray of henna flowers
in the vineyards of ‘Ein-Gedi.
[He]
15 Look at you, my love! How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are doves —
[She]
16 — Look at you!
So handsome, so pleasing, my darling!
Our bed is the greenery;
17 cedars are the beams of our houses,
cypresses the rafters.
2 I am but a rose from the Sharon,
just a lily in the valleys.
[He]
2 Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the other women.
[She]
3 Like an apple tree among the other trees in the forest
is my darling among the other men.
I love to sit in his shadow;
his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He brings me to the banquet hall;
his banner over me is love.
5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
6 [I wish] his left arm [were] under my head,
and his right arm around me.
7 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
by the gazelles and deer in the wilds,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!
8 The voice of the man I love! Here he comes,
bounding over the mountains, skipping over the hills!
9 My darling is like a gazelle or young stag.
There he is, standing outside our wall,
looking in through the windows,
peering in through the lattice.
10 My darling speaks; he is saying to me,
“Get up, my love! My beauty! Come away!
11 For you see that the winter has passed,
the rain is finished and gone,
12 the flowers are appearing in the countryside,
the time has come for [the birds] to sing,
and the cooing of doves can be heard in the land.
13 The fig trees are forming their unripe figs,
and the grapevines in bloom give out their perfume.
Get up, my love, my beauty!
Come away!”
[He]
14 My dove, hiding in holes in the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
let me see your face and hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
[She]
15 “Catch the foxes for us,
yes, the little foxes!
They are ruining the vineyards
when our vineyards are in bloom!”
16 My darling is mine, and I am his,
as he pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Before the daytime breeze rises
and the shadows flee,
return, my love, like a stag or gazelle
on the hills of Beter.
3 Night after night on my bed
I looked for the man I love.
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
2 “I will get up now and roam the city,
through the streets and the open places,
I will look for the man I love.”
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
3 The guards roaming the city found me.
“Have you seen the man I love?”
4 Scarcely had I left them,
when I found the man I love.
I took hold of him
and would not let him go
until I had brought him to my mother’s house,
to the bedroom of the woman who conceived me.
5 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
by the gazelles and deer in the wilds,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!
6 Who is this, coming up from the desert
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
chosen from the merchant’s crushed spices?
7 It is Shlomo’s litter,
escorted by sixty valiant men
chosen from Isra’el’s finest;
8 all of them wield the sword
and are expert fighters;
each one has his sword ready at his side
to combat the terrors of night.
9 King Shlomo made himself a royal litter
of wood from the L’vanon.
10 He made its columns of silver,
its roof of gold, its seat of purple cloth;
its inside was lovingly inlaid
by the daughters of Yerushalayim.
11 Daughters of Tziyon, come out,
and gaze upon King Shlomo,
wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day, his day of joy!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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