Song of Solomon 3

New Century Version

3 At night on my bed,
    I looked for the one I love;
    I looked for him, but I could not find him.
² I got up and went around the city,
    in the streets and squares,
looking for the one I love.
    I looked for him, but I could not find him.
³ The watchmen found me as they patrolled the city,
    so I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
⁴ As soon as I had left them,
    I found the one I love.
I held him and would not let him go
    until I brought him to my mother’s house,
    to the room where I was born.

⁵ Women of Jerusalem, promise me
    by the gazelles and the deer
not to awaken
    or excite my feelings of love
    until it is ready.
⁶ Who is this coming out of the desert
    like a cloud of smoke?
Who is this that smells like myrrh, incense,
    and other spices?
⁷ Look, it’s Solomon’s couch^[a]
    with sixty soldiers around it,
    the finest soldiers of Israel.
⁸ These soldiers all carry swords
    and have been trained in war.
Every man wears a sword at his side
    and is ready for the dangers of the night.
⁹ King Solomon had a couch made for himself
    of wood from Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its posts of silver
    and its braces of gold.
The seat was covered with purple cloth
    that the women of Jerusalem wove with love.
¹¹ Women of Jerusalem, go out and see King Solomon.
    He is wearing the crown his mother put on his head
on his wedding day,
    when his heart was happy!