Song of Songs 3

¹W On my bed at night I sought him[#Sg 5:2–8.; #See the parallel in 5:2–8.]

whom my soul loves—

I sought him but I did not find him.

²“Let me rise then and go about the city,[#The motif of seeking/finding here and elsewhere is used by later Christian and Jewish mystics to speak of the soul’s search for the divine.]

through the streets and squares;

Let me seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him but I did not find him.

³The watchmen found me,

as they made their rounds in the city:

“Him whom my soul loves—have you seen him?”

⁴Hardly had I left them[#Sg 8:2.]

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him and would not let him go

until I had brought him to my mother’s house,

to the chamber of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, Daughters of Jerusalem,[#Sg 2:7; 8:4.]

by the gazelles and the does of the field,

Do not awaken or stir up love

until it is ready.

⁶D Who is this coming up from the desert,[#Sg 6:10; 8:5.; #This may be an independent poem. In context it portrays the lover as King Solomon, escorted by sixty armed men, coming in royal procession to meet a bride.]

like columns of smoke

Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all kinds of exotic powders?

⁷See! it is the litter of Solomon;

sixty valiant men surround it,

of the valiant men of Israel:

⁸All of them expert with the sword,

skilled in battle,

Each with his sword at his side

against the terrors of the night.

⁹King Solomon made himself an enclosed litter

of wood from Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its columns of silver,

its roof of gold,

Its seat of purple cloth,

its interior lovingly fitted.

Daughters of Jerusalem,

¹¹go out

and look upon King Solomon

In the crown with which his mother has crowned him

on the day of his marriage,

on the day of the joy of his heart.