The Bride Longs for Affection

1 Introduction The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

2 The Woman Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.

3 Your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the virgins love you.

4 Draw me after you, let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. Friends of the Woman We will exult and rejoice in you; we will remember your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

5 The Woman I am dark, but still lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

6 Do not gaze at me, because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.

7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions?

8 Friends of the Woman If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

Expression of Mutual Love

9 The Man I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

10 Lovely are your cheeks with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.

11 Friends of the Woman We will make you ornaments of gold, with studs of silver.

12 The Woman While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.

13 My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that lies all night between my breasts.

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

15 The Man How fair you are, my love. How fair you are! Your eyes are doves.

16 The Woman How fair you are, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Our bed is verdant;

17 the beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.