Song of Songs 3

₁She says:

‘When I looked in my bed

for the man that I love,

when I looked for him in the night,

I could not find him.

₂I said I wanted to get up and go

into the streets of the city

and into the market places.

I wanted to look for the man that I love.

I looked for him, but I could not find him.

₃The guards saw me there and I asked them:

“Have you seen the man that I love?”

₄After I had walked past them,

I found the man that I love.

I held him. I did not want to let him go

until I had taken him to the house of my mother,

to the room where I was born.

₅Women of Jerusalem,

you must promise me,

and the gazelles and the deer

in the field must be your witnesses.

You must promise that you will

not think about love until the right time.’

₆Their friends say:

‘Who is that woman who comes

out of the desert like a cloud of smoke?

I can smell the lovely myrrh and incense

and the perfumes that come

from the merchants.

₇Look, that is King Solomon

on his carrying-chair.

There are 60 special men with him.

They are the best soldiers of Israel.

₈Every man has a sword,

and he knows how to fight in war.

Every man has his sword at his hip,

and every man is ready

for the dangerous things that come at night.

₉King Solomon had his throne made

from wood of the Lebanon Mountains.

₁₀The bottom of the throne

is made of silver,

the back is made of gold,

and the pillows of purple wool.

The women of Jerusalem have sewn

beautiful pictures on

the pillows because they love the king.

₁₁Women of Jerusalem,

come and look at King Solomon.

He has the crown on his head

that his mother gave him on the day

that he got married and rejoiced.’