Song of Solomon 3

1 One night when I was lying in bed, I longed for the one I love. I longed for him, but he was nowhere to be found.

By night on my bed I was looking for him who is the love of my soul: I was looking for him, but I did not see him.

2 So I said to myself, “I will get up now and go through the city, looking in its streets and squares for the one I love.” I looked for him but I didn't find him.

I will get up now and go about the town, in the streets and in the wide ways I will go after him who is the love of my soul: I went after him, but I did not see him.

3 The watchmen found me as they went through the city. “Have you seen the one I love?” I asked them.

The watchmen who go about the town came by me; to them I said, Have you seen him who is my heart's desire?

4 Only a little farther on after I'd passed them I found my love! I held him close and would not let him go until I'd brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

I was but a little way from them, when I came face to face with him who is the love of my soul. I took him by the hands, and did not let him go, till I had taken him into my mother's house, and into the room of her who gave me birth.

5 Women of Jerusalem, swear to me by the gazelles or the wild deer that you won't disturb our love until the right time.

I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the field, let not love be moved till it is ready.

6 Who is this coming in from the wilderness like a plume of smoke, like a burning sacrifice scented with myrrh and frankincense, with all kinds of imported perfumed powders?

Who is this coming out of the waste places like pillars of smoke, perfumed with sweet spices, with all the spices of the trader?

7 Look, it's Solomon's sedan chair, accompanied by sixty of Israel's best warriors.

See, it is the bed of Solomon; sixty men of war are about it, of the army of Israel,

8 All of them are expert swordsmen who have battle experience. They each carry a sword strapped to the thigh, ready for any night-time attacks.

All of them armed with swords, trained in war; every man has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night.

9 (Solomon's sedan chair was made for him with wood from Lebanon.

King Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon.

10 Its posts were covered in silver, and the back was covered in gold. The seat cushion was purple. The interior was lovingly decorated.) Women of Jerusalem,

He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it of ebony.

11 come out! Look, women of Zion! See King Solomon wearing the crown that his mother placed on his head on his wedding day, his happiest day.

Go out, O daughters of Jerusalem, and see King Solomon, with the crown which his mother put on his head on the day when he was married, and on the day of the joy of his heart.