¹The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

• Beloved

• ²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
• for your love is better than wine.

• ³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance.
• Your name is oil poured forth,
• therefore the virgins love you.

• ⁴Take me away with you.
• Let us hurry.
• The king has brought me into his rooms.

• Friends

• We will be glad and rejoice in you.
• We will praise your love more than wine!

• Beloved

• They are right to love you.

• ⁵I am dark, but lovely,
• you daughters of Jerusalem,
• like Kedar’s tents,
• like Solomon’s curtains.

• ⁶Don’t stare at me because I am dark,
• because the sun has scorched me.

• My mother’s sons were angry with me.
• They made me keeper of the vineyards.
• I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

• ⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
• where you graze your flock,
• where you rest them at noon;
• For why should I be as one who is veiled
• beside the flocks of your companions?

• Lover

• ⁸If you don’t know, most beautiful among women,
• follow the tracks of the sheep.
• Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

• ⁹I have compared you, my love,
• to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.

• ¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
• your neck with strings of jewels.

• ¹¹We will make you earrings of gold,
• with studs of silver.

• Beloved

• ¹²While the king sat at his table,
• my perfume spread its fragrance.

• ¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh,
• that lies between my breasts.

• ¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
• from the vineyards of En Gedi.

• Lover

• ¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
• Behold, you are beautiful.
• Your eyes are doves.

• Beloved

• ¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant;
• and our couch is verdant.

• Lover

• ¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars.
• Our rafters are firs.