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The Most Beautiful Song by Solomon.

The Loved One

Let him kiss me over and over again![a]
    Your love is better than wine.
The fragrance of your perfumed oil is wonderful.
    Your name is perfume poured out.
        Therefore the young women love you.
Take me with[b] you! Let’s run away!
    Let the king bring me into his private chambers.

The Young Women

The daughters[c] of Jerusalem[d] will rejoice and be happy for you.
    We will value your love more than wine.
        They love you appropriately.

The Loved One

The daughters[e] of Jerusalem, I’m dark and lovely
    like the tents of Kedar,
        like the curtains of Solomon.
Don’t stare at me because I’m dark;
    the sun has tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me.
    They made me the caretaker of the vineyards,
        but I didn’t take care of my own vineyard.

Tell me, you whom I love,
    where do you graze your flock?
        Where do you make your flock lie down[f] at noon?
Why should I be considered a veiled woman[g]
    beside the flocks of your companions?

The Lover

If you don’t know, most beautiful of women,
    go out after the flock and graze your young goats beside the shepherd’s tents.
My darling, I compare you to a[h] mare
    among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
    your neck with strings of jewels.

The Young Women

11 We will make ornaments of gold for you,
    accented with silver.

The Loved One

12 While the king was sitting at his table,
    my perfume sent forth its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh[i]
    that lies between my breasts all night.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna[j] blossoms
    in the vineyards of En-gedi.

The Lover

15 Look at you! You are beautiful, my darling.
    Look at you! You are so beautiful.
        Your eyes are doves.

The Loved One

16 Look at you! You are handsome, my beloved, truly lovely.
    How lush is our couch.
17 The beams of our house are cedar,[k]
    our rafters are pine.

Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 1:2 Lit. me with the kisses of his mouth
  2. Song of Solomon 1:4 Lit. Draw me after
  3. Song of Solomon 1:4 Or The young women
  4. Song of Solomon 1:4 The Heb. lacks daughters of Jerusalem (cf. v. 5)
  5. Song of Solomon 1:5 Or The young women
  6. Song of Solomon 1:7 Lit. where do you make to lie down
  7. Song of Solomon 1:7 I.e. a prostitute
  8. Song of Solomon 1:9 Lit. my
  9. Song of Solomon 1:13 I.e. a fragrant spice used as a perfume
  10. Song of Solomon 1:14 I.e. an aromatic shrub used cosmetically
  11. Song of Solomon 1:17 I.e. a genus of coniferous evergreen in the family Pinaceae; and so throughout the book

The song of songs, which is Solomon's.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

12 While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

13 A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

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