New International Version NIV
Orthodox Jewish Bible OJB
1 Solomon’s Song of Songs.
1
Shir HaShirim, which is Sh’lomo’s
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.
2
Let him kiss me with the neshikot (kisses) of his mouth; for better is dodecha (thy love) than yayin (wine).
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you!
3
Tovim is the fragrance of thy shmanim (ointments); thy shem (name) is like shemen (ointment) poured forth; therefore do the alamot love thee [alamot, young unmarried virgins; pl of almah virgin; see Shir HaShirim 6:8; Yeshayah 7:14; Bereshis 24:43; Shemot 2:8; Mishlei 30:19, where the word has this explicit or implicit meaning throughout the Tanakh; see page vii].
4 Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you ; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!
4
Draw me; so will we run after thee; the Melech hath brought me into his chadarim (chambers); we will be glad and rejoice in thee; we will extol dodecha (thy love) more than yayin; uprightly have they loved thee.
5 Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.
5
Shechorah (black, dark, sun-blackened) am I, yet lovely, O ye banot Yerushalayim, like the oholim (tents) of Kedar, like the curtains of Sh’lomo.
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect.
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Let your eyes burn not into me because I am black, because the shemesh hath burned its eyes into me; bnei immi (my step-brothers) were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the kramim (vineyards); but mine own kerem (vineyard) have I not kept.
7 Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?
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O tell me, thou whom my nefesh loveth, where feedest thou? Where makest thou thy flock to lie down at noon? For why should I be as one who veils herself among the edrei chaverecha (the flocks of thy chaverim, fellow companions)?
8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.
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If thou know not, O thou fairest among nashim, go thy way forth by the footprints of the tzon, and feed thy young goats beside the mishkenot haro’im (the tents of the shepherds).
9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
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O my love, to a susah (mare) among the chariots of Pharaoh do I compare thee.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.
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Thy cheeks are lovely with ornaments, thy tzavar (neck) with necklaces.
11 We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.
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Ornaments of zahav will we make for thee, studded with kesef.
12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.
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While the Melech is at his table, my spikenard perfume has yielded its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.
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Dodi (my beloved) is to me a sachet of myrrh that lieth in my bosom.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.
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Dodi (my beloved) is to me as a cluster of henna blooms in the kramim (vineyards) of Ein-Gedi.
15 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.
15
See, thou art yafeh (fair), my love; see, thou art fair; thine eynayim are yonim (doves).
16 How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.
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See, thou art yafeh (handsome), dodi (my beloved), yea, na’im (pleasing); also our couch is verdant.
17 The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.
17
The beams of our bais are cedar, and our rafters are cypress.
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The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.