Song of Songs 1

Modern English Version

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
    For your love is better than wine.
³ Your anointing oils are fragrant,
    your name is oil poured out;
    therefore the virgins love you.
⁴ Draw me after you, let us run.
    The king has brought me into his chambers.

We will exult and rejoice in you;
    we will remember your love more than wine;
    rightly do they love you.

⁵ I am dark, but still lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    like the tents of Kedar,
    like the curtains of Solomon.
⁶ Do not gaze at me, because I am dark,
    because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
    they made me the keeper of the vineyards,
    but my own vineyard I have not kept.
⁷ Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
    where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
    for why should I be like one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions?

⁸ If you do not know, O fairest among women,
    follow in the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your young goats
    beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹ I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
¹⁰ Lovely are your cheeks with ornaments,
    your neck with chains of gold.

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

¹² While the king was on his couch,
    my nard gave forth its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh
    that lies all night between my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
    in the vineyards of En Gedi.

¹⁵ How fair you are, my love.
    How fair you are! Your eyes are doves.

¹⁶ How fair you are, my beloved!
    Yes, pleasant!
    Our bed is verdant;
¹⁷ the beams of our house are cedar,
    and our rafters of fir.