¹On my bed at night I sought him

whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but did not find him.

²“I will rise now and walk around the city,

in the streets and in the plazas;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him, but did not find him.

³The watchmen found me[#SS 5:7; Isa 21:6–8]

while they roamed the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴I had just left them

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

and into the room of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#SS 2:7; 8:4]

by the gazelles or by the does of the field:

do not arouse or awaken love

until it pleases.

⁶What is that coming up from the wilderness,[#SS 8:5]

like columns of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all the scented powders of the merchant?

⁷Look, it is the portable couch of Solomon!

Around it are sixty strong men

of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all of them armed with swords

and proficient in war.

Each man has his sword at his thigh,

because of terrors by night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a palanquin

from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver,

its back of gold,

its seat of purple cloth;

its interior was lovingly inlaid with leather

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go forth, O daughters of Zion,[#Isa 4:4]

and look upon King Solomon with the crown

with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding,

the day of the gladness of his heart.