Love’s Dream
3 Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.[a](A)
2 “I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him but found him not.(B)
3 The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”(C)
4 Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.(D)
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(E)
The Young Man and His Party Approach
6 Who is that coming up from the wilderness
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?(F)
7 Look, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men
of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all equipped with swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh
because of alarms by night.(G)
9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with stone.
Daughters[b] of Jerusalem,(H)
11 come out and look[c]
at King Solomon,
at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
Footnotes
- 3.1Gk: Heb lacks this line
- 3.10Cn Compare Gk: Heb with love from the daughters
- 3.11Gk: Heb adds daughters of Zion