¹ By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

² I said, I will rise now, and go around the city. In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

³ The watchmen who go about the city found me. I said, Did ye see him whom my soul loves?

⁴ It was but a little that I passed from them when I found him whom my soul loves. 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 who 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 love, until it please.

⁶ Who is this who comes 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. Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸ They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night.

⁹ King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the seat thereof of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹ Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown with which his mother has crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.