Song of Songs 1-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.(A)
Colloquy of the Young Woman and Friends
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;(B)
3 your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is perfume poured out;
therefore the maidens love you.(C)
4 Draw me after you; let us make haste.
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.(D)
5 I am black and beautiful,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.(E)
6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
because the sun has gazed on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept!(F)
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 is veiled
beside the flocks of your companions?(G)
8 If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow the tracks of the flock
and pasture your kids
beside the shepherds’ tents.(H)
Colloquy of the Young Man, Friends, and the Young Woman
9 I compare you, my love,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.(I)
10 Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.(J)
11 We will make 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 bag of myrrh
that lies between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.(K)
15 Ah, you are beautiful, my love;
ah, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.(L)
16 Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved,
truly lovely.
Our couch is green;
17 the beams of our house are cedar;
our rafters[a] are pine.(M)
2 I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.(N)
2 As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among maidens.
3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.(O)
4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his intention toward[b] me was love.(P)
5 Sustain me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.(Q)
6 O that his left hand were under my head
and that his right hand embraced me!(R)
7 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(S)
Springtime Rhapsody
8 The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.(T)
9 My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.(U)
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away,(V)
11 for now 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.(W)
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.(X)
14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face;
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.(Y)
15 Catch us the foxes,
the little foxes,
that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in blossom.”(Z)
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.(AA)
17 Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on the cleft mountains.[c](AB)
Love’s Dream
3 Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.[d](AC)
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.(AD)
3 The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”(AE)
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 brought him into my mother’s house
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.(AF)
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(AG)
The Young Man and His Party Approach
6 Who is that coming up from the wilderness
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?(AH)
7 Look, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men
of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all equipped with swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh
because of alarms by night.(AI)
9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin
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 stone.
Daughters[e] of Jerusalem,(AJ)
11 come out and look[f]
at King Solomon,
at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.