Song of Songs 3

Song of Songs 3

Love’s Dream

¹Upon my bed at night[#Song 1.7; 5.6; Isa 26.9]

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

²“I will rise now and go about the city,[#Jer 5.1]

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him but found him not.

³The sentinels found me,[#Song 5.7]

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴Scarcely had I passed them,[#Song 8.2]

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.

⁵I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#Song 2.7; 8.4]

by the gazelles or the wild does:

do not stir up or awaken love

until it is ready!

The Young Man and His Party Approach

⁶Who is that coming up from the wilderness[#Song 1.13; 4.6, 14; 8.5]

like a column of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

⁷Look, it is the litter of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men

of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all equipped with swords[#Ps 45.3; 91.5; Jer 50.9]

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh

because of alarms by night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a palanquin

from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver,[#Song 1.5]

its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with stone.

Daughters of Jerusalem,

¹¹come out and look[#3.11 Gk: Heb adds daughters of Zion]

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.