1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O noble daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of a master hand.
2 Your navel is a rounded bowl
that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
encircled with lilies.
3 tYour two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
4 uYour neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
which looks toward Damascus.
5 Your head crowns you like Carmel,
and your flowing locks are like purple;
a king is held captive in the tresses.
6 How beautiful and pleasant you are,
O loved one, with all your delights!1
7 Your stature is like a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
8 I say I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,
She
It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
gliding over lips and teeth.3
10 wI am my beloved’s,
and his desire is for me.
The Bride Gives Her Love
11 Come, my beloved,
let us go out into the fields
and lodge in the villages;4
12 let us go out early to the vineyards
and xsee whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape yblossoms have opened
and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
13 The zmandrakes give forth fragrance,
and beside our doors are all achoice fruits,
new as well as old,
which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
Longing for Her Beloved
1 Oh that you were like a brother to me
who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
and none would despise me.
2 I would lead you and bbring you
into the house of my mother—
she who used to teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranate.
3 cHis left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
4 dI adjure you, O edaughters of Jerusalem,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
5 fWho is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on gher beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
there she who bore you was in labor.
6 Set me has a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy5 is fierce as the grave.6
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he7 would be utterly despised.
Final Advice
Others
8 We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
She
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds8 peace.
11 Solomon ihad a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 jMy vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
He
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
with kcompanions listening for your voice;
llet me hear it.
She
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be mlike a gazelle
or a young stag
on the nmountains of spices.
Give the King Your Justice
zOf Solomon.
1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 aMay he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
5 May they fear you1 bwhile the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, cthroughout all generations!
6 May he be dlike rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
7 In his days may ethe righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
8 fMay he have dominion gfrom sea to sea,
and hfrom the River2 to the iends of the earth!
9 May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies jlick the dust!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kkings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
12 lFor he mdelivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has nno helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and osaves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and pprecious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live;
may qgold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
rlike the grass of the field!
17 May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
sMay people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
18 tBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does uwondrous things.
19 vBlessed be his glorious name forever;
may wthe whole earth be filled with his glory!
xAmen and Amen!
20 The yprayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Unless the Lord Builds the House
A Song of Ascents. oOf Solomon.
1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of panxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children1 of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall qnot be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.2
