1The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine, 3your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you. 4Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. 5I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 6Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!
7Tell 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 is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? 8If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds’ tents. 9I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. 10Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. 11We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.
12While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 13My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts. 14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi. 15Ah, you are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. 16Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green; 17the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.
2I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
3As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention toward me was love. 5Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. 6O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! 7I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
8The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. 10My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 11for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
14O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. 15Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in blossom.” 16My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies. 17Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains.
From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.