Song of Solomon 1-4

American Standard Version

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
For thy love is better than wine.
³ Thine oils have a goodly fragrance;
Thy name is as oil poured forth;
Therefore do the ^[a]virgins love thee.
⁴ Draw me; we will run after thee:
The king hath brought me into his chambers;
We will be glad and rejoice in thee;
We will make mention of thy love more than of wine:
^[b]Rightly do they love thee.
⁵ I am black, but comely,
Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem,
As the tents of Kedar,
As the curtains of Solomon.
⁶ Look not upon me, because I am swarthy,
Because the sun hath ^[c]scorched me.
My mother’s sons were incensed against me;
They made me keeper of the vineyards;
But mine own vineyard have I not kept.
⁷ Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
Where thou feedest thy flock,
Where thou makest it to rest at noon:
For why should I be as one that is veiled
Beside the flocks of thy companions?

⁸ If thou know not, O thou fairest among women,
Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,
And feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹ I have compared thee, O ^[d]my love,
^[e]To a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.
¹⁰ Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair,
Thy neck with strings of jewels.
¹¹ We will make thee plaits of gold
With studs of silver.
¹² While the king sat at his table,
My spikenard sent forth its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is unto me as a ^[f]bundle of myrrh,
That lieth betwixt my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is unto me as a cluster of ^[g]henna-flowers
In the vineyards of En-gedi.

¹⁵ Behold, thou art fair, my love;
Behold thou art fair;
^[h]Thine eyes are as doves.

¹⁶ Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant:
Also our couch is green.
¹⁷ The beams of our ^[i]house are ^[j]cedars,
And our rafters are ^[k]firs.
2 I am a ^[l]rose of ^[m]Sharon,
A lily of the valleys.

² As a 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 ^[n]sat down under his shadow with great delight,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
⁴ He brought me to the ^[o]banqueting-house,
And his banner over me was love.
⁵ Stay ye me with ^[p]raisins, refresh me with apples;
For I am sick from love.
^6 [q]His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand doth embrace me.

⁷ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the ^[r]roes, or by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Until ^[s]he please.

⁸ The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
⁹ My beloved is like a ^[t]roe or a young hart:
Behold, he standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He glanceth through the lattice.

¹⁰ My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, 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 ^[u]singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
¹³ The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom;
They 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 covert of the steep place,
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

¹⁵ Take us the foxes, the little foxes,
That spoil the vineyards;
For our vineyards are in blossom.
¹⁶ My beloved is mine, and I am his:
He feedeth his flock among the lilies.
^17 [v]Until the day ^[w]be cool, and the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a ^[x]roe or a young hart
Upon the ^[y]mountains of ^[z]Bether.

3 By night on my bed
I sought him whom my soul loveth:
I sought him, but I found him not.
² I said, 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,
When 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 adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Until ^[aa]he please.

⁶ Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness
Like pillars of smoke,
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
With all powders of the merchant?
⁷ Behold, it is the litter of Solomon;
Threescore mighty men are about it,
Of the mighty men of Israel.
⁸ They all handle the sword, and are expert in war:
Every man hath his sword upon his thigh,
Because of fear in the night.
⁹ King Solomon made himself a ^[ab]palanquin
Of the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made the pillars thereof of silver,
The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple,
The midst thereof being ^[ac]paved with love,
From the daughters of Jerusalem.
¹¹ Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon,
With the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him
In the day of his espousals,
And in the day of the gladness of his heart.

4 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;
^[ad]Thine eyes are as doves behind thy ^[ae]veil.
Thy hair is as a flock of goats,
That ^[af]lie along the side of mount Gilead.
² Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are newly shorn,
Which are come up from the washing,
^[ag]Whereof every one hath twins,
And none is bereaved among them.
³ Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,
And thy ^[ah]mouth is comely.
Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate
Behind thy ^[ai]veil.
⁴ Thy neck is like the tower of David
Builded ^[aj]for an armory,
Whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,
All the shields of the mighty men.
⁵ Thy two breasts are like two fawns
That are twins of a ^[ak]roe,
Which feed among the lilies.

⁶ Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh,
And to the hill of frankincense.

⁷ Thou art all fair, my love;
And there is no spot in thee.
⁸ Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
With me from Lebanon:
^[al]Look from the top of Amana,
From the top of Senir and Hermon,
From the lions’ dens,
From the mountains of the leopards.
⁹ Thou hast ^[am]ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;
Thou hast ^[an]ravished my heart with ^[ao]one of thine eyes,
With one chain of thy neck.
¹⁰ How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is thy love than wine!
And the fragrance of thine oils than all manner of spices!
¹¹ Thy lips, O my bride, ^[ap]drop as the honeycomb:
Honey and milk are under thy tongue;
And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
¹² A garden ^[aq]shut up is my sister, my bride;
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
¹³ Thy shoots are ^[ar]an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits;
Henna with spikenard plants,
¹⁴ Spikenard and saffron,
Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;
Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
¹⁵ Thou art a fountain of gardens,
A well of living waters,
And flowing streams from Lebanon.

¹⁶ Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;
Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
And eat his precious fruits.