3 On my bed by night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

    I sought him, but found him not.

² I will rise now and go about the city,

    in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.

    I sought him, but found him not.

³ The watchmen found me

    as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴ Scarcely had I passed 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 gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

    until it pleases.

⁶ What is that coming up from the wilderness

    like columns of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

    with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

⁷ Behold, it is the litter^[a] of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men,

    some of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸ all of them wearing swords

    and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

    against terror by night.

⁹ King Solomon made himself a carriage^[b]

    from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made its posts of silver,

    its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with love

    by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹ Go out, O daughters of Zion,

    and look upon King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

    on the day of his wedding,

    on the day of the gladness of his heart.

4 Behold, you are beautiful, my love,

    behold, you are beautiful!

Your eyes are doves

    behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

² Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

    that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

    and not one among them has lost its young.<br