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

² I will rise now and go about in the city, in the streets and in the broad places. I will seek Him whom my soul loves. I sought Him, but I did not find Him.

³ The watchmen going about in the city found me. I said , Have you seen Him my soul loves?

⁴ When I had passed on from them, it was a little while until I found Him whom my soul loves. I seized Him, and I did not let Him go until I had brought Him into my mother's house, and into the room of her who conceived me.

⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you do not stir up, even that you not stir up the Beloved until it pleases.

⁶ Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, burned with myrrh and frankincense, from all powders of the merchant?

⁷ Behold his bed, Solomon's! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸ They all hold the sword, instructed in war; each man has his sword on his thigh from dread in the night.

⁹ King Solomon made himself a litter bed of the trees of Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made its poles of silver; its back of gold; its seat of purple; its middle was paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹ Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, even on the day of the gladness of his heart.