The Woman Dreams

At night on my bed,

I looked for the one I love;

I looked for him, but I could not find him.

² I got up and went around the city,

in the streets and squares,

looking for the one I love.

I looked for him, but I could not find him.

³ The watchmen found me as they patrolled the city,

so I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”

⁴ As soon as I had left them,

I found the one I love.

I held him and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

to the room where I was born.

The Woman Speaks to the Friends

⁵ Women of Jerusalem, promise me

by the gazelles and the deer

not to awaken

or excite my feelings of love

until it is ready.

⁶ Who is this coming out of the desert

like a cloud of smoke?

Who is this that smells like myrrh, incense,

and other spices?

⁷ Look, it’s Solomon’s couch^[a]

with sixty soldiers around it,

the finest soldiers of Israel.

⁸ These soldiers all carry swords

and have been trained in war.

Every man wears a sword at his side

and is ready for the dangers of the night.

⁹ King Solomon had a couch made for himself

of wood from Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made its posts of silver

and its braces of gold.

The seat was covered with purple cloth

that the women of Jerusalem wove with love.

¹¹ Women of Jerusalem, go out and see King Solomon.

He is wearing the crown his mother put on his head

on his wedding day,

when his heart was happy!

Footnotes

1. 3:7 couch Something like a bed carried by slaves on which the king lay or sat while traveling.