[1] Upon my bed, night after night, I looked for the one whom I love with all my heart. I looked for him but couldn’t find him. [2] “I will rise now and go all around the city, through the streets and the squares. I will look for the one whom I love with all my heart.” I looked for him but couldn’t find him. [3] The guards found me, those who make their rounds in the city. “The one whom I love with all my heart—have you seen him?” [4] No sooner did I depart from them than I found the one whom I love with all my heart. I held on to him and now I won’t let him go, until I’ve brought him to my mother’s house, to the chamber of the one who conceived me. [5] I place you under oath, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild deer: don’t rouse, don’t arouse love until it desires. [6] Who is this, coming up from the wilderness, like pillars of smoke? She is perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, selected from all the spice merchant’s powders. [7] Picture Solomon’s bed—sixty heroic men round about it, all from the heroes of Israel, [8] all of them skilled with the sword, expert in warfare, each with his sword ready at his thigh against terrors that come by night. [9] King Solomon made a canopied couch for himself from the trees of Lebanon. [10] Its pillars he made of silver, its covering, cloth of gold, its cushions, royal purple; its interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem, [11] go forth! Look, daughters of Zion—on King Solomon wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of his heart’s joy.
