The Song of Songs 4:1

The Wedding Night: Praise of the Bride

The Lover to His Beloved:

4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my darling!

Oh, you are beautiful!

Your eyes behind your veil are like doves.

Your hair is like a flock of female goats

descending from Mount Gilead.

The Song of Songs 3:1-11

The Lost Lover is Found

The Beloved about Her Lover:

3:1 All night long on my bed

I longed for my lover.

I longed for him but he never appeared.

3:2 “I will arise and look all around throughout the town,

and throughout the streets and squares;

I will search for my beloved.”

I searched for him but I did not find him.

3:3 The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls.

“Have you seen my beloved?”

3:4 Scarcely had I passed them by

when I found my beloved!

I held onto him tightly and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

to the bedroom chamber of the one who conceived me.

The Adjuration Refrain

The Beloved to the Maidens:

3:5 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields:

“Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Royal Wedding Procession

The Speaker:

3:6 Who is this coming up from the desert

like a column of smoke,

like a fragrant billow of myrrh and frankincense,

every kind of fragrant powder of the traveling merchants?

3:7 Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch!

It is surrounded by sixty warriors,

some of Israel’s mightiest warriors.

3:8 All of them are skilled with a sword,

well-trained in the art of warfare.

Each has his sword at his side,

to guard against the terrors of the night.

3:9 King Solomon made a sedan chair for himself

of wood imported from Lebanon.

3:10 Its posts were made of silver;

its back was made of gold.

Its seat was upholstered with purple wool;

its interior was inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem.

3:11 Come out, O maidens of Zion,

and gaze upon King Solomon!

He is wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him

on his wedding day,

on the most joyous day of his life!

The Song of Songs 7:1-13

The Lover to His Beloved:

7:1 (7:2) How beautiful are your sandaled feet,

O nobleman’s daughter!

The curves of your thighs are like jewels,

the work of the hands of a master craftsman.

7:2 Your navel is a round mixing bowl –

may it never lack mixed wine!

Your belly is a mound of wheat,

encircled by lilies.

7:3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

7:4 Your neck is like a tower made of ivory.

Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon

by the gate of Bath-Rabbim.

Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon

overlooking Damascus.

7:5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.

The locks of your hair are like royal tapestries –

the king is held captive in its tresses!

7:6 How beautiful you are! How lovely,

O love, with your delights!

The Palm Tree and the Palm Tree Climber

The Lover to His Beloved:

7:7 Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like clusters of grapes.

7:8 I want to climb the palm tree,

and take hold of its fruit stalks.

May your breasts be like the clusters of grapes,

and may the fragrance of your breath be like apricots!

7:9 May your mouth be like the best wine,

flowing smoothly for my beloved,

gliding gently over our lips as we sleep together.

Poetic Refrain: Mutual Possession

The Beloved about Her Lover:

7:10 I am my beloved’s,

and he desires me!

The Journey to the Countryside

The Beloved to Her Lover:

7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside;

let us spend the night in the villages.

7:12 Let us rise early to go to the vineyards,

to see if the vines have budded,

to see if their blossoms have opened,

if the pomegranates are in bloom –

there I will give you my love.

7:13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance;

over our door is every delicacy,

both new and old, which I have stored up for you, my lover.