The Song of Solomon 1:1-17
1 The song of songs,* which is Solʹo·mon’s:+
2 “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,For your expressions of affection are better than wine.+
3 The fragrance of your oils is pleasant.+
Your name is like a fragrant oil poured out.+
That is why the young women love you.
4 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.
5 I am dark,* but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,Like the tents of Keʹdar,+ like the tent cloths+ of Solʹo·mon.
6 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.
7 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?”
8 “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.”
9 “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.”