¹On my bed in the nights I sought him whom my being loves; I sought him, and I did not find him.

²Let me rise now and let me go around the city, in the streets and in the open places let me seek him whom my being loves. I sought him and did not find him.

³The guards who go around in the city found me. Him whom my being loves, have you seen?

⁴I had passed only a little from them when I found him whom my being loves. I grasped him and would not let him go, until I brought him to the house of my mother, to the room of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you not awaken or arouse love until it takes delight.

⁶Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, fumigated with myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of a trader?

⁷Behold, his bed, which is Solomon's: sixty mighty men around it, some of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸All of them grasp the sword, trained in war, each man with his sword on his thigh, against dread in the nights.

⁹King Solomon made himself a litter from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its pillars of silver, its support of gold, its seat of purple, its middle was fitted out with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go out and look, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.