1. "On my bed night after night I looked for him whom my soul loves. I looked for him but did not find him.

2. 'I must get up now and go about the city, in the streets and in the open places. I must look for him whom my soul loves.' I looked for him but did not find him.

3. The men who watch over the city found me, and I said, 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?'

4. I had just passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held on to him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to my mother's house, and into the room of her who gave birth to me."

5. "I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the deer of the field, you must not wake up my love until it is pleasing to her."

6. "What is this coming up from the desert like smoke? It has the smell of special perfumes, with all the perfumes of the traders.

7. See, it is the traveling wagon of Solomon. Sixty of the strong men of Israel are around it.

8. All of them use the sword and are very able in war. Each man has his sword at his side, keeping watch against trouble in the night.

9. King Solomon has made for himself a beautiful wagon from the wood of Lebanon.

10. He made its long pieces of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple cloth. The inside of it was made beautiful by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11. Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon as he wears the crown his mother put on his head on the day of his wedding, on the day his heart was glad."