Add parallel Print Page Options

The Woman Speaks to the Friends

Women of Jerusalem, promise me
    by the gazelles and the deer.
Promise not to wake love.
    Don’t excite my feelings of love
    until I’m ready.
Who is this coming out of the desert
    like a cloud of smoke?
Who is this that smells like myrrh, incense
    and other spices?
Look, it’s Solomon’s couch[a]
    with 60 soldiers around it.
    They are the finest soldiers of Israel.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3:7 couch Something like a bed carried by slaves on which the king lay or sat while traveling.

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you(A)
    by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
    until it so desires.(B)

Who is this coming up from the wilderness(C)
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh(D) and incense
    made from all the spices(E) of the merchant?
Look! It is Solomon’s carriage,
    escorted by sixty warriors,(F)
    the noblest of Israel,

Read full chapter