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]
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.
³ The sentinels found me,
    as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
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.
⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!

⁶ What 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?
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.
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 love.^[b]
    Daughters of Jerusalem,
¹¹     come out.
Look, O daughters of Zion,
    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.