The Song of Solomon 1:1-17

  • Song of songs (1)

  • Young woman (2-7)

  • Daughters of Jerusalem (8)

  • King (9-11)

    • “We will make for you gold ornaments” (11)

  • Young woman (12-14)

    • ‘My dear one is like a fragrant bag of myrrh’ (13)

  • Shepherd (15)

    • “You are beautiful, my beloved”

  • Young woman (16, 17)

    • “You are beautiful, my dear one” (16)

1  The song of songs,* which is Solʹo·mon’s:+   “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,For your expressions of affection are better than wine.+   The fragrance of your oils is pleasant.+ Your name is like a fragrant oil poured out.+ That is why the young women love you.   Take me with you;* let us run. The king has brought me into his interior rooms! Let us be joyful and rejoice in you. Let us praise* your expressions of affection more than wine. Rightly they* love you.   I am dark,* but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,Like the tents of Keʹdar,+ like the tent cloths+ of Solʹo·mon.   Do not stare at me because I am swarthy,Because the sun has gazed upon me. The sons of my mother were angry with me;They appointed me the keeper of the vineyards,But my own vineyard I did not keep.   Tell me, you whom I love* so much,Where you pasture your flock,+Where you have them lie down at midday. Why should I be like a woman wrapped in a veil*Among the flocks of your companions?”   “If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,Go follow the tracks of the flockAnd pasture your young goats next to the tents of the shepherds.”   “I liken you, my beloved, to a* mare among the chariots of Pharʹaoh.+ 10  Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,*Your neck with strings of beads. 11  We will make for you gold ornaments*Studded with silver.” 12  “While the king sits at his round table,My perfume*+ gives off its fragrance. 13  My dear one is to me like a fragrant bag of myrrh+Spending the night between my breasts. 14  My dear one is to me like a cluster of henna+Among the vineyards of En-gedʹi.”+ 15  “Look! You are beautiful, my beloved. Look! You are beautiful. Your eyes are those of doves.”+ 16  “Look! You are beautiful,* my dear one, and delightful.+ Our bed is among the foliage. 17  The beams of our house* are cedars,Our rafters are juniper trees.

Footnotes

Or “The superlative song.”
Lit., “Draw me after you.”
Or “recount.”
That is, the young women.
Lit., “black.”
Or “a veil of mourning.”
Or “my soul loves.”
Or “my.”
Or possibly, “among the braids of hair.”
Or “circlets.”
Lit., “spikenard.”
Or “handsome.”
Or “grand house.”