Song of Solomon 3

1 In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

On my bed at night I sought the one I love; I sought him, but did not find him.

2 I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

I will arise now and go about the city, through the streets and squares. I will seek the one I love. So I sought him but did not find him.

3 The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city: “Have you seen the one I love?”

4 When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let go until I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.

O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

6 Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?

7 Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounded the bed of Solomon?

Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel.

8 All holding swords, and most expert in war: every man’s sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.

All are skilled with the sword, experienced in warfare. Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night.

9 King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus:

King Solomon has made his carriage out of the timber of Lebanon.

10 The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple: the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.

He has made its posts of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple fabric. Its interior is inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart.

Come out, O daughters of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown his mother bestowed on the day of his wedding— the day of his heart’s rejoicing.