Wednesday, April 3

Upon my bed at night

    I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him but found him not;

    I called him, but he gave no answer.[a]

2 

“I will rise now and go about the city,

    in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

    I sought him but found him not.

3 

The sentinels found me,

    as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

4 

Scarcely had I passed them,

    when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him and would not let him go

    until I brought him into my mother’s house

    and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5 

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

    by the gazelles or the wild does:

do not stir up or awaken love

    until it is ready!

The Young Man and His Party Approach

6 

Who is that coming up from the wilderness

    like a column of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

    with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

7 

Look, it is the litter of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men

    of the mighty men of Israel,

8 

all equipped with swords

    and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh

    because of alarms by night.

9 

King Solomon made himself a palanquin

    from the wood of Lebanon.

10 

He made its posts of silver,

    its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with stone.

    Daughters[b] of Jerusalem,

11 

    come out and look[c]

    at King Solomon,

at the crown with which his mother crowned him

    on the day of his wedding,

    on the day of the gladness of his heart.