Add parallel Print Page Options

The most beautiful song of Solomon.

The Young Woman Arrives in Solomon’s Palace

[ BRIDE ]

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Your expressions of love are better than wine,
better than the fragrance of cologne.
(Cologne should be named after you.)
No wonder the young women love you!
Take me with you. Let’s run away.
The king has brought me into his private rooms.

[ THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN ]

We will celebrate and rejoice with you.
We will praise your expressions of love more than wine.
How right it is that the young women love you!

[ BRIDE ]

Young women of Jerusalem, I am dark and lovely
like Kedar’s tents,
like Solomon’s curtains.
Stop staring at me because I am so dark.
The sun has tanned me.
My brothers were angry with me.
They made me the caretaker of the vineyards.
I have not even taken care of my own vineyard.
Please tell me, you whom I love, where do you graze your flock?
Where does your flock lie down at noon?
⌞Tell me,⌟ or I will be considered a prostitute
⌞wandering⌟ among the flocks of your companions.

[ THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN ]

If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
follow the tracks of the flocks,
and graze your young goats near the shepherds’ tents.

Solomon Searches for the Young Woman’s Love

[ GROOM ]

My true love, I compare you to a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions.
10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of pearls.

[ THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN ]

11 We will make gold ornaments with silver beads for you.

[ BRIDE ]

12 While the king is at his table,
my perfume fills the air with its fragrance.
13 My beloved is a pouch of myrrh [a]
that lies at night between my breasts.
14 My beloved is a bouquet of henna flowers
in the vineyards of En Gedi.

[ GROOM ]

15 Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love!
Look at you! You are so beautiful!
Your eyes are like doves!

[ BRIDE ]

16 Look at you! You are handsome, my beloved, so pleasing to me!
The leaf-scattered ground will be our couch.
17 The cedars will be the walls of our house.
The cypress trees will be our rafters.

Footnotes

  1. 1:13 Myrrh   is a fragrant resin used for perfumes, embalming, and deodorizers.

The song of songs, which is Solomon's.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

12 While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

13 A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.