Song of Solomon, 3

1. On my bed at night I sought the man who is my sweetheart: I sought but could not find him!

1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

2. So I shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!

2. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

3. I came upon the watchmen -- those who go on their rounds in the city: 'Have you seen my sweetheart?'

3. The watchmen that go about the city found me: [to whom I said], Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4. Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room where she conceived me!

4. [It was] but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5. LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.

5. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.

6. POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?

6. Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7. Here comes Solomon's litter. Around it are sixty champions, the flower of the warriors of Israel;

7. Behold his bed, which [is] Solomon's; threescore valiant men [are] about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8. all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.

8. They all hold swords, [being] expert in war: every man [hath] his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

9. King Solomon has had a palanquin made of wood from Lebanon.

9. King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

10. He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.

10. He made the pillars thereof [of] silver, the bottom thereof [of] gold, the covering of it [of] purple, the midst thereof being paved [with] love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11. Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart's joy.

11. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.