Song of Solomon 1:1-17

1  The superlative song,*+ which is Solʹo·mon’s:+  “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,+ for your expressions of endearment* are better than wine.+  For fragrance your oils+ are good. Like an oil that is poured out is your name.+ That is why maidens themselves have loved you.  Draw me with* you;+ let us run. The king has brought me into his interior rooms!+ Do let us be joyful and rejoice in you. Do let us mention your expressions of endearment more than wine.+ Deservedly they have loved you.+  “A black girl I am, but comely, O YOU daughters of Jerusalem,+ like the tents of Keʹdar,+ [yet] like the tent cloths+ of Solʹo·mon.  Do not YOU look at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has caught sight of me. The sons of my own mother grew angry with me; they appointed me the keeper of the vineyards, [although] my vineyard,+ one that was mine, I did not keep.  “Do tell me, O you whom my soul has loved,+ where you do shepherding,+ where you make the flock lie down at midday. Just why should I become like a woman wrapped in mourning among the droves of your partners?”  “If you do not know for yourself, O you most beautiful one among women,+ go out yourself in the footprints of the flock and pasture your kids of the goats alongside the tabernacles of the shepherds.”  “To a mare of mine in the chariots of Pharʹaoh I have likened you,+ O girl companion of mine.+ 10  Your cheeks are comely among the hair braids, your neck in a string of beads.+ 11  Circlets of gold we shall make for you,+ along with studs of silver.” 12  “As long as the king is at his round table my own spikenard+ has given out its fragrance.+ 13  As a bag of myrrh+ my dear one is to me; between my breasts+ he will spend the night. 14  As a cluster of henna+ my dear one is to me, among the vineyards of En-geʹdi.”+ 15  “Look! You are beautiful, O girl companion of mine.+ Look! You are beautiful. Your eyes are [those of] doves.”+ 16  “Look! You are beautiful,*+ my dear one, also pleasant. Our divan+ also is one of foliage. 17  The beams of our grand house* are cedars,+ our rafters juniper trees.

Footnotes

Or, “The most beautiful (most excellent) song.” Lit., “Song of the songs.”
Lit., “your endearments.” Heb., do·dheyʹkha.
Or, “after.” See Jg 13:11 ftn; Ru 1:16 ftn.
“You are beautiful,” masc., referring to her shepherd lover.
Lit., “our houses.”