Song of Solomon 3

¹Upon 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.

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.

³The sentinels found me,

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴Scarcely 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.

⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the wild does:

do not stir up or awaken love

until it is ready!

⁶What 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?

⁷Look, it is the litter of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men

of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all equipped with swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh

because of alarms by night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a palanquin

from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver,

its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with love.

Daughters of Jerusalem,

¹¹come out.

Look, O daughters of Zion,

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.