1By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not. 2I 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. 3The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said , Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ? 4It was but a little that I passed from them, but 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.
The Arrival of the Beloved
5I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem , by the roes , and by the hinds of the field , that ye stir not up , nor awake my love , till he please . 6Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke , perfumed with myrrh and frankincense , with all powders of the merchant ? 7Behold his bed , which is Solomon’s ; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel . 8They all hold swords , being expert in war : every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night . 9King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon . 10He made the pillars thereof of silver , the bottom thereof of gold , the covering of it of purple , the midst thereof being paved with love , for the daughters of Jerusalem . 11Go forth , O ye daughters of Zion , and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals , and in the day of the gladness of his heart .