1 Solomon’s Song of Songs.
The Woman Speaks to the Man She Loves
2 Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth,
because your love is better than wine.
3 The smell of your perfume is pleasant,
and your name is pleasant like expensive perfume.
That’s why the young women love you.
4 Take me with you; let’s run together.
The king takes me into his rooms.
Friends Speak to the Man
We will rejoice and be happy with you;
we praise your love more than wine.
With good reason, the young women love you.
The Woman Speaks
5 I’m dark but lovely,
women of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Don’t look at how dark I am,
at how dark the sun has made me.
My brothers were angry with me
and made me tend the vineyards,
so I haven’t tended my own vineyard!
7 Tell me, you whom I love,
where do you feed your sheep?
Where do you let them rest at noon?
Why should I look for you near your friend’s sheep,
like a woman who wears a veil?[a]
The Man Speaks to the Woman
8 You are the most beautiful of women.
Surely you know to follow the sheep
and feed your young goats
near the shepherds’ tents.
9 My darling, you are like a mare
among the king’s stallions.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,
and your neck with jewels.
11 We will make for you gold earrings
with silver hooks.
The Woman Speaks
12 The smell of my perfume spreads out
to the king on his couch.
13 My lover is like a bag of myrrh
that lies all night between my breasts.
14 My lover is like a bunch of flowers
from the vineyards at En Gedi.
The Man Speaks
15 My darling, you are beautiful!
Oh, you are beautiful,
and your eyes are like doves.
The Woman Answers the Man
16 You are so handsome, my lover,
and so pleasant!
Our bed is the grass.
17 Cedar trees form our roof;
our ceiling is made of juniper wood.
Footnotes
- 1:7 veil This was the way a prostitute usually dressed.