Song of Solomon 1

¹Solomon's Song of Songs.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth- for your love is more delightful than wine.

³Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you!

⁴Take 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!

⁵Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do 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.

⁷Tell 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?

⁸If 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.

⁹I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.

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

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

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

¹³My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

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

¹⁵How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

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

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.