1. By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loves. I sought Him, but I did not find Him.

2. I will rise now and go about in the city, in the streets and in the broad places. I will seek Him whom my soul loves. I sought Him, but I did not find Him.

3. The one watching going about in the city found me. I said, Have you seen Him whom my soul loves?

4. When I had passed on from them, it was a little while until I found Him whom my soul loves. I seized Him, and I did not let Him go until I had brought Him into my mother's house, and into the room of her who conceived me.

5. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you do not stir up, even that you not awaken the Love until it pleases.

6. Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness like columns of smoke, sacrificing as incense myrrh and frankincense, from all powders of the merchant?

7. Behold his bed, Solomon's! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

8. They all hold the sword, instructed in war; each man has his sword on his thigh from dread in the night.

9. King Solomon made himself a litter bed of the trees of Lebanon.

10. He made its poles of silver; its back of gold; its seat of purple; its middle was paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11. Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, even on the day of the gladness of his heart.