Canticle of Canticles 1

¹ The Song of Songs, which is Solomons.

² O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine,

³ your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the maidens love you.

⁴ Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

⁵ I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶ Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept!

⁷ Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸ If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds' tents.

⁹ I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots.

¹⁰ Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹ We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

¹² While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.

¹³ My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.

¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

¹⁵ Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.

¹⁶ Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;

¹⁷ the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.