note: Among the multitudes who read the Bible there are comparatively few who have a clear understanding of the Song of Solomon. Some have thought it to be a collection of songs, but it is more generally understood to be a sort of drama, the positive interpretation of which is impossible because the identity of the speakers and the length of the speeches are not disclosed.

1 The song of songs [the most excellent of them all] which is Solomon’s.^(A)

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! [she cries. Then, realizing that Solomon has arrived and has heard her speech, she turns to him and adds] For your love is better than wine!

³ [And she continues] The odor of your ointments is fragrant; your name is like perfume poured out. Therefore do the maidens love you.

⁴ Draw me! We will run after you! The king brings me into his apartments! We will be glad and rejoice in you! We will recall [when we were favored with] your love, more fragrant than wine. The upright [are not offended at your choice, but sincerely] love you.

⁵ I am so black; but [you are] lovely and pleasant [the ladies assured her]. O you daughters of Jerusalem, [I am as dark] as the tents of [the Bedouin tribe] Kedar, like the [beautiful] curtains of Solomon!

⁶ [Please] do not look at me, [she said, for] I am swarthy. [I have worked out] in the sun and it has left its mark upon me. My stepbrothers were angry with me, and they made me keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard [my complexion] I have not kept.

⁷ [Addressing her shepherd, she said] Tell me, O ^[a]you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon. For why should I [as I think of you] be as a veiled one straying beside the flocks of your companions?^(B)

⁸ If you do not know [where your lover is], O you fairest among women, run along, follow the tracks of the flock, and [amuse yourself by] pasturing your kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹ O my love [he said as he saw her], you remind me of my [favorite] mare in the chariot spans of Pharaoh.

¹⁰ Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹ We will make for you chains and ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

¹² While the king sits at his table [she said], my spikenard [my absent lover] sends forth [his] fragrance [over me].

¹³ My beloved [shepherd] is to me like a [scent] bag of myrrh that lies in my bosom.

¹⁴ My beloved [shepherd] is to me a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of En-gedi [famed for its fragrant shrubs].

¹⁵ Behold, you are beautiful, my love! Behold, you are beautiful! You have doves’ eyes.

¹⁶ [She cried] Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved [shepherd], yes, delightful! Our arbor and couch are green and leafy.

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars, and our rafters and panels are cypresses or pines.