Study Desk

Solomon's Most Wonderful Song.

Cover me with kisses, for your love is better than wine.

Your perfume smells wonderful, but your name^[a] is sweeter than the best perfume. That is why the young women love you.

Take me with you. Let's run away. The king took me into his room.

The Women of Jerusalem to the Man

We will rejoice and be happy for you. Remember, your love is better than wine. With good reason, the young women love you.

Daughters of Jerusalem, I am dark and beautiful, as black as the tents of Kedar and Salma.^[b]

Don't look at how dark I am, at how dark the sun has made me. My brothers were angry with me. They forced me to take care of their vineyards, so I could not take care of myself.^[c]

I love you with all my soul! Tell me, where do you feed your sheep? Where do you lay them down at noon? I should come to be with you or I will be like a hired woman^[d] caring for the sheep of your friends.

You are such a beautiful woman. Surely you know what to do. Go, follow the sheep. Feed your young goats near the shepherds' tents.

My darling, you are more exciting to me than any mare among the stallions^[e] pulling Pharaoh's chariots.^[f]

Your cheeks are so beautiful with those ornaments hanging beside them. Your neck is so lovely under that beautiful string of jewels.

Let's make you some more gold jewelry and decorate it with silver.

The smell of my perfume reaches out to the king lying on his couch.

My lover is like the small bag of myrrh around my neck , lying all night between my breasts.

My lover is like a bunch of henna flowers near the vineyards of En Gedi.

My darling, you are so beautiful! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.

You are so handsome, my lover! Yes, and so charming! Our bed is so fresh and pleasant.^[g]

The beams of our house are cedar. The rafters are fir.

I am a rose on the plain of Sharon,^[a] a lily^[b] in the valleys.

My darling, among other women, you are like a lily among thorns!

My lover, among other men, you are an apple tree among the wild trees in the forest!

She Speaks to the Women

I enjoy sitting in my lover's shadow; his fruit is so sweet to my taste.

My lover took me to the wine house; his intent toward me was love.

Strengthen me with raisins^[c]; refresh me with apples, because I am weak with love.^[d]

My lover's left arm is under my head, and his right arm holds me.

Women of Jerusalem, promise me by the gazelles and wild deer, don't awaken love, don't arouse love, until I am ready.^[e]

I hear my lover's voice. Here it comes, jumping over the mountains, skipping over the hills.

My lover is like a gazelle or a young deer. Look at him standing behind our wall, staring out the window, looking through the lattice.^[f]

My lover speaks to me, "Get up, my darling, my beautiful one. Let's go away!

Look, winter is past, the rains have come and gone.

The flowers are blooming in the fields. It's time to sing!^[g] Listen, the doves have returned.

Young figs are growing on the fig trees. Smell the vines in bloom. Get up, my darling, my beautiful one. Let's go away!"

My dove, hiding in the caves high on the cliff, hidden here on the mountain, let me see you, let me hear your voice. Your voice is so pleasant, and you are so beautiful!

Catch the foxes for us— the little foxes that spoil the vineyard. Our vineyard is now in bloom.

My lover is mine, and I am his! My lover feeds among the lilies,

while the day breathes its last breath and the shadows run away. Turn, my lover, be like a gazelle or a young deer on the cleft mountains!^[h]