Song of Solomon 1-2

Common English Bible

Oh, your loving is sweeter than wine!
³ Your fragrance is sweet;
        your very name is perfume.
        That’s why the young women love you.
⁴ Take me along with you; let’s run!

My king has brought me into his chambers, saying,
“Let’s exult and rejoice in you.
Let’s savor your loving more than wine.
        No wonder they all love you!”

⁵ Dark am I, and lovely, daughters of Jerusalem—
        like the black tents of the Kedar nomads,
        like the curtains of Solomon’s palace.
⁶ Don’t stare at me because I’m darkened
        by the sun’s gaze.
My own brothers were angry with me.
        They made me a caretaker of the vineyards—
        but I couldn’t care for my own vineyard.

⁷ Tell me, you whom I love with all my heart—
        where do you pasture your flock,
        where do you rest them at noon?—
            so I don’t wander around with the flocks of your companions.

⁹ I picture you, my dearest,
        as a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots!
¹⁰ Lovely are your cheeks, adorned with ear hoops;
        your neck, with beads.
¹¹ Let’s make hoops of gold beaded with silver for you!

⁵ Sustain me with raisin cakes,
        strengthen me with apples,
        for I’m weak with love!

⁶ His left arm is beneath my head,
        his right embraces me.

⁷ Make a solemn pledge, daughters of Jerusalem,
        by the gazelles or the wild deer:
Don’t rouse, don’t arouse love
        until it desires.

⁸ Listen! It’s my lover: here he comes now,
        leaping upon the mountains,
        bounding over the hills.
⁹ My lover is like a gazelle
        or a young stag.
Here he stands now,
        outside our wall,
        peering through the windows,
        peeking through the lattices.

¹⁰ My lover spoke and said to me,
“Rise up, my dearest,
        my fairest, and go.
¹¹ Here, the winter is past;
        the rains have come and gone.
¹² Blossoms have appeared in the land;
        the season of singing^[b] has arrived,
        and the sound of the turtledove is heard in our land.
¹³ The green fruit is on the fig tree,
        and the grapevines in bloom are fragrant.
Rise up,^[c] my dearest,
        my fairest, and go.
¹⁴ My dove—in the rock crevices,
        hidden in the cliff face—
        let me catch sight of you;
        let me hear your voice!
The sound of your voice is sweet,
        and the sight of you is lovely.”

¹⁵ Catch foxes for us—
        those little foxes
        that spoil vineyards,
        now that our vineyards are in bloom!

¹⁶ I belong to my lover and he belongs to me—
        the one grazing among the lilies.
¹⁷         Before the day breeze blows
        and the shadows flee,
    turn about, my love; be like a gazelle
        or a young stag
        upon the jagged mountains.^[d]