3 Upon my bed at night
    I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not;
    I called him, but he gave no answer.^[a](A)
2 “I will rise now and go about the city,
    in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
    I sought him but found him not.^(B)
3 The sentinels found me,
    as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”^(C)
4 Scarcely had I passed them,
    when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go
    until I brought him into my mother’s house
    and into the chamber of her that conceived me.^(D)
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!^(E)

⁶ Who is that coming up from the wilderness
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
    with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?^(F)
7 Look, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men
    of the mighty men of Israel,
⁸ all equipped with swords
    and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh
    because of alarms by night.^(G)
9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin
    from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its posts of silver,
    its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with stone.
    Daughters^[b] of Jerusalem,^(H)
11     come out and look^[c]
    at King Solomon,
at the crown with which his mother crowned him
    on the day of his wedding,
    on the day of the gladness of his heart.