Song of Solomon 1; Song of Solomon 2; Song of Solomon 3

1 Solomon's Greatest Song.

2 Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, because your love is better than wine.

3 The smell of your perfume is pleasant, and your name is pleasant like expensive perfume. That's why the young women love you.

4 Take me with you; let's run together. The king takes me into his rooms. We will rejoice and be happy with you; we praise your love more than wine. With good reason, the young women love you.

5 I'm dark but lovely, women of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

6 Don't look at how dark I am, at how dark the sun has made me. My brothers were angry with me and made me tend the vineyards, so I haven't tended my own vineyard!

7 Tell me, you whom I love, where do you feed your sheep? Where do you let them rest at noon? Why should I look for you near your friend's sheep, like a woman who wears a veil?

8 You are the most beautiful of women. Surely you know to follow the sheep and feed your young goats near the shepherds' tents.

9 My darling, you are like a mare among the king's stallions.

10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, and your neck with jewels.

11 We will make for you gold earrings with silver hooks.

12 The smell of my perfume spreads out to the king on his couch.

13 My lover is like a bag of myrrh that lies all night between my breasts.

14 My lover is like a bunch of flowers from the vineyards at En Gedi.

15 My darling, you are beautiful! Oh, you are beautiful, and your eyes are like doves.

16 You are so handsome, my lover, and so pleasant! Our bed is the grass.

17 Cedar trees form our roof; our ceiling is made of juniper wood.

1 I am a rose in the Plain of Sharon, a lily in the valleys.

2 Among the young women, my darling is like a lily among thorns!

3 Among the young men, my lover is like an apple tree in the woods! I enjoy sitting in his shadow; his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the banquet room, and his banner over me is love.

5 Strengthen me with raisins, and refresh me with apples, because I am weak with love.

6 My lover's left hand is under my head, and his right arm holds me tight.

7 Women of Jerusalem, promise me by the gazelles and the deer not to awaken or excite my feelings of love until it is ready.

8 I hear my lover's voice. Here he comes jumping across the mountains, skipping over the hills.

9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young deer. Look, he stands behind our wall peeking through the windows, looking through the blinds.

10 My lover spoke and said to me, "Get up, my darling; let's go away, my beautiful one.

11 Look, the winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

12 Blossoms appear through all the land. The time has come to sing; the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

13 There are young figs on the fig trees, and the blossoms on the vines smell sweet. Get up, my darling; let's go away, my beautiful one."

14 My beloved is like a dove hiding in the cracks of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff. Show me your face, and let me hear your voice. Your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

15 Catch the foxes for us -- the little foxes that ruin the vineyards while they are in blossom.

16 My lover is mine, and I am his. He feeds among the lilies

17 until the day dawns and the shadows disappear. Turn, my lover. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountain valleys.

1 At night on my bed, I looked for the one I love; I looked for him, but I could not find him.

2 I got up and went around the city, in the streets and squares, looking for the one I love. I looked for him, but I could not find him.

3 The watchmen found me as they patrolled the city, so I asked, "Have you seen the one I love?"

4 As soon as I had left them, I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the room where I was born.

5 Women of Jerusalem, promise me by the gazelles and the deer not to awaken or excite my feelings of love until it is ready.

6 Who is this coming out of the desert like a cloud of smoke? Who is this that smells like myrrh, incense, and other spices?

7 Look, it's Solomon's couchn with sixty soldiers around it, the finest soldiers of Israel.

8 These soldiers all carry swords and have been trained in war. Every man wears a sword at his side and is ready for the dangers of the night.

9 King Solomon had a couch made for himself of wood from Lebanon.

10 He made its posts of silver and its braces of gold. The seat was covered with purple cloth that the women of Jerusalem wove with love.

11 Women of Jerusalem, go out and see King Solomon. He is wearing the crown his mother put on his head on his wedding day, when his heart was happy!