Song of Solomon 3

¹Upon my bed by 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 watchmen 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 had 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 hinds of the field,

that you stir not up nor awaken love

until it please.

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?

⁷Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!

About it are sixty mighty men

of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all girt with swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

against 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;

it was lovingly wrought within

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go forth, O daughters of Zion,

and behold King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding,

on the day of the gladness of his heart.