¹Solomon's Song of Songs.

²“May he kiss me with kisses of his mouth,

For your love is better than wine.

³At the fragrance of your good oils,

Your name is as oil poured out,

Which is why the virgins love you.

⁴Draw me after you; we will run away.

The king has brought me to his rooms.”

“We will rejoice and be glad with you;

We will remember your love more than wine.

Those who are upright love you.”

⁵“I am swarthy and comely,

You daughters of Jerusalem,

Like the tents of Kedar,

Like Solomon's curtains.

⁶Do not look at me, because I am swarthy

– Because the sun has given me a tan.

The sons of my mother have become angry with me.

They appointed me as a guardian of their vineyards;

I have not guarded my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my being loves,

Where are you tending your flock?

Where do you make them lie down at noon?

For why should I be languishing

Alongside the flocks of your fellow shepherds?”

⁸“If you do not know,

O most beautiful among women,

Then go out along the tracks of the flock

And tend your goat-kids

By the tabernacles of the shepherds.”

⁹“I have compared you to my mare

Among Pharaoh's chariots, my beloved.

¹⁰How beautiful would be your cheeks

With rows of beads,

And your neck with strings of pearls!

¹¹We will make you rows of golden beads

With studs of silver.”

¹²“While the king is on his couch,

My spikenard emits its fragrance.

¹³My lover is a bundle of myrrh to me.

He shall pass the night between my breasts.

¹⁴My lover is a bunch of henna flowers to me,

In the vineyards of En-Gedi.”

¹⁵“Behold how beautiful you are, my beloved;

Behold how beautiful you are

With your eyes of a dove.”

¹⁶“Behold how handsome you are my lover

– Indeed delightful –

Moreover our couch is fresh.”

¹⁷“The joists of our house are cedars,

And our wainscoting is of cypress.”