6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard have I not kept.
7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? [1]
8 If thou knowest not, O thou fairest among women, go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.
10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold .
11 We will make for thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
12 While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth its fragrance.
13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved to me; he shall lie all night between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me as a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of Engedi. [2]
15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes. [3]
16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir. [4]
CHAP. 2.
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. [5] [6]
4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. [7]
5 Sustain me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick with love. [8]
6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not, nor awake my love, till he please. [9]
8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, gazing himself through the lattice. [10]
10 My beloved spoke, and said to me, Rise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land;
13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
15 Take for us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
17 Until the day shall break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. [11]
CHAP. 3.
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: 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.
5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; sixty valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. [12]
10 He made its posts of silver, the bottom of it of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst of it being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.
CHAP. 4.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. [13]
2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep
- ↑ as one...: or, as one that is veiled
- ↑ camphire: or, cypress
- ↑ my love: or, my companion
- ↑ rafters: or, galleries
- ↑ I sat...: Heb. I delighted and sat down, etc
- ↑ taste: Heb. palate
- ↑ banqueting...: Heb. house of wine
- ↑ comfort...: Heb. straw me with apples
- ↑ I charge...: Heb. I adjure you
- ↑ shewing...: Heb. flourishing
- ↑ of Bether: or, of division
- ↑ a chariot: or, a bed
- ↑ that...: or, that eat of, etc
