Solomon’s Song of Songs.

Beloved

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfurries; your name is like perfume poured out.

No wonder the maidens love you! Take me away with you—let us hurry!

Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Friends

We rejoice and delight in youwe will praise your love more than wine.

Beloved

How right they are to adore you! Dark am I, yet lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

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 have neglected.

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?

Friends

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.

Lover

I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

I will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

Beloved

While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

Lover

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

Beloved

16How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

Beloved

The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

Beloved

I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

Lover

Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.

Beloved

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young

men.

I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.

Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples for I am faint with love.

His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

Daughters of Jerusalern I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

Listen! My lover!

Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

My lover spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit; the lssoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

Lover

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside,

show me your face, let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards our vineyards that are in bloom.

Beloved

My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover,

and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.’