2  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is ^bbetter than wine;

3  your anointing oils are fragrant;

your name is oil poured out;

therefore virgins love you.

4  ^cDraw me after you; let us run.

The king has ^dbrought me into his chambers.

We will exult and rejoice in you;

we will extol your love more than wine;

rightly do they love you.

5  I am very dark, but lovely,

O ^edaughters of Jerusalem,

like the ^ftents of Kedar,

like the curtains of Solomon.

6  Do not gaze at me because I am dark,

because the sun has looked upon me.

My mother’s sons were angry with me;

they made me ^gkeeper of the vineyards,

but ^hmy own vineyard I have not kept!

7  Tell me, you ⁱwhom my soul loves,

where you pasture your flock,

where you make it lie down at noon;

for why should I be like one who veils herself

beside the flocks of your ^jcompanions?

8  If you do not know,

^kO most beautiful among women,

follow in the tracks of the flock,

and pasture your young goats

beside the shepherds’ tents.

9  I compare you, ^lmy love,

to a mare among Pharaoh’s ^mchariots.

10  Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,

your neck with strings of jewels.

11  We will make for you² ornaments of gold,

studded with silver.

12  While the king was on his couch,

my ⁿnard gave forth its fragrance.

13  My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh

that lies between my breasts.

14  My beloved is to me a cluster of ^ohenna blossoms

in the vineyards of Engedi.

15  ^pBehold, ^qyou are beautiful, my love;

behold, you are beautiful;

^ryour eyes are doves.

16  Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.

Our couch is green;

17  the beams of our house are cedar;

our rafters are pine.

2  I am a rose¹ of ^sSharon,

a lily of the valleys.

2  As a lily among brambles,

so is ^tmy love among the young women.

3  As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is ^umy beloved among the young men.

With great delight I sat in his shadow,

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4  He ^vbrought me to the banqueting house,²

and his ^wbanner over me was love.

5  Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for ^xI am sick with love.

6  ^yHis left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

7  ^zI adjure you,³ O ^adaughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

8  The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping over the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

9  My beloved is ^blike a gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

10  My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11  for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

12  The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing⁴ has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

13  The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in ^cblossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

14  O ^dmy dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

^elet me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

15  Catch the foxes⁵ for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

for our vineyards are in blossom.”

16  ^fMy beloved is mine, and I am his;

he ^ggrazes⁶ among the lilies.

17  ^hUntil the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.⁷

3  On my bed by night

I sought him ⁱwhom my soul loves;

I ^jsought him, but found him not.

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.

3  ^kThe watchmen found me

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

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 had ^lbrought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

5  ^mI adjure you, O ⁿdaughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

6  ^oWhat is that coming up from the wilderness

like columns of smoke,

perfumed with ^pmyrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

7  Behold, it is the litter¹ of ^qSolomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men,

some of the mighty men of Israel,

8  all of them wearing swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

against terror by night.

9  King Solomon made himself a carriage²

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 love

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11  Go out, O daughters of Zion,

and look upon King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding,

on the day of the gladness of his heart.

4  ^rBehold, ^syou are beautiful, ^tmy love,

behold, you are beautiful!

^uYour eyes are doves

behind your ^vveil.

^wYour hair is like a flock of goats

leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

2  ^xYour teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

and not one among them has lost its young.

3  Your lips are like a scarlet thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

^yYour cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

4  ^zYour neck is like the tower of David,

built in rows of stone;¹

on it hang a thousand shields,

all of them shields of warriors.

5  ^aYour two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle,

that ^bgraze among the lilies.

6  ^cUntil the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

I will go away to the ^dmountain of myrrh

and the hill of frankincense.

7  You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you.

8  Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;

come with me from Lebanon.

Depart² from the peak of Amana,

from the peak of Senir and Hermon,

from the dens of lions,

from the mountains of leopards.

9  You have captivated my heart, ^emy sister, my bride;

you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,

with one jewel of your necklace.

10  How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!

How much better is your love ^fthan wine,

and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

11  Your lips drip nectar, my bride;

^ghoney and milk are under your tongue;

the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

12  A garden locked is my sister, my bride,

a ^hspring locked, a fountain sealed.

13  Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates

with all ⁱchoicest fruits,

^jhenna with ^knard,

14  nard and saffron, ^lcalamus and cinnamon,

with all trees of frankincense,

^mmyrrh and aloes,

with all choice spices—

15  a garden fountain, a well of living water,

and flowing streams from Lebanon.

16  Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my ⁿgarden,

let its spices flow.

Let ^omy beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.

5  I came to my ^pgarden, ^qmy sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my ^rhoney,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

2  I slept, but my heart was awake.

A sound! ^sMy beloved is knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, ^tmy love,

^umy dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”

3  I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

4  My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

5  I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

6  I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I ^vsought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

7  ^wThe watchmen found me

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they bruised me,

they took away my veil,

those watchmen of the walls.

8  I adjure you, O ^xdaughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

^yI am sick with love.

9  What is your beloved more than another beloved,

^zO most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

10  My beloved is radiant and ^aruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

11  His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

12  ^bHis eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.¹

13  His cheeks are like ^cbeds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

14  His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,²

bedecked with sapphires.³

15  His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

16  His ^dmouth⁴ is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.