Song of Solomon 1-3

New Life Version

1 The Song of Songs, the most beautiful of them all, which is Solomon’s.

The First Song

The Woman

² “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. ³ Your oils have a pleasing smell. Your name is like oil poured out. So the young women love you. ⁴ Take me away with you, and let us run together. The king has brought me into his room.

“We will have joy and be glad because of you. We will praise your love more than wine. They are right to love you.

⁵ “I am dark but beautiful, O people of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. ⁶ Do not look hard at me because I am dark, for the sun has burned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me, and made me take care of the grape-fields. But I have not taken care of my own grape-field. ⁷ Tell me, O you whom my soul loves. In what field do you feed your flock? Where do your sheep lie down at noon? Why should I need to look for you beside the flocks of your friends?”

King Solomon

⁸ “If you do not know, most beautiful among women, follow the path of the flock. And let your young goats eat in the field beside the tents of the shepherds.

⁹ “To me, my love, you are like my horse among the war-wagons of Pharaoh. ¹⁰ Your face is beautiful with the objects you wear, and your neck with the beautiful chain around it. ¹¹ We will make objects of gold and silver for you.”

The Woman

¹² “While the king was at his table, my perfume gave out its smell. ¹³ My loved one is like a jar of perfume to me, who lies all night between my breasts. ¹⁴ My loved one is to me like many henna flowers, in the grape-fields of Engedi.”

King Solomon

¹⁵ “How beautiful you are, my love! How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”

The Woman

¹⁶ “How beautiful you are, my love, and so pleasing! Our bed is green. ¹⁷ The pillars of our house are cedars. The pieces on our roof are pine.

2 “I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.”

King Solomon

² “Like a lily among the thorns, so is my loved one among the young women.”

The Woman

³ “Like a fruit tree among many trees, so is my loved one among the young men. With much joy I sat down in his shadow. And his fruit was sweet to my taste. ⁴ He brought me to his special large room for eating, and his colors over me were love. ⁵ Make me strong with cakes of dried grapes. Make me strong again with fruit, because I am sick with love. ⁶ Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand hold me close.”

King Solomon

⁷ “I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and deer of the field, you must not wake up my love until it is pleasing to her.”

The Second Song

The Woman

⁸ “Listen, it is the voice of my loved one! See, he is coming! He is running over the mountains, jumping across the hills. ⁹ My love is like a gazelle or a young deer. See, he is standing behind our wall. He is looking through the windows, through the wood cross-pieces.

¹⁰ “My love speaks and says to me, ‘Get up, my love, my beautiful one, and come with me. ¹¹ For see, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. ¹² The flowers are coming through the ground. The time for singing has come. The voice of the turtle-dove has been heard in our land. ¹³ The fig tree has its fruits. The flowers on the vines spread their sweet smell. Get up, my love, my beautiful one, and come with me! ¹⁴ O my dove, hidden in the rock, in the secret place in the mountain-side, let me see you. Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet, and you are beautiful.

¹⁵ ‘Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are destroying our grape-fields, for the flowers are on the vines. ¹⁶ My love is mine, and I am his. He lets his flock eat among the lilies. ¹⁷ Until the morning comes and the shadows hurry away, turn, my love. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.’”

The Woman

3 “On my bed night after night I looked for him whom my soul loves. I looked for him but did not find him. ² ‘I must get up now and go about the city, in the streets and in the open places. I must look for him whom my soul loves.’ I looked for him but did not find him. ³ The men who watch over the city found me, and I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’ ⁴ I had just passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held on to him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to my mother’s house, and into the room of her who gave birth to me.”

King Solomon

⁵ “I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the deer of the field, you must not wake up my love until it is pleasing to her.”

The Third Song

The Woman

⁶ “What is this coming up from the desert like smoke? It has the smell of special perfumes, with all the perfumes of the traders. ⁷ See, it is the traveling wagon of Solomon. Sixty of the strong men of Israel are around it. ⁸ All of them use the sword and are very able in war. Each man has his sword at his side, keeping watch against trouble in the night. ⁹ King Solomon has made for himself a beautiful wagon from the wood of Lebanon. ¹⁰ He made its long pieces of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple cloth. The inside of it was made beautiful by the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹ Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon as he wears the crown his mother put on his head on the day of his wedding, on the day his heart was glad.”