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 the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him.

3 The watchmen that go about the city found me, [to whom I said], Have ye seen him whom my soul loves?

4 [It was] but a little that I passed from them that I found him whom my soul loves: 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 brought me into the light.

5 I charge you, O ye virgins of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye not awake nor stir up love, until he pleases.

6 Who [is] she that rises out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and with all [the] aromatic powders?

7 Behold [it] is the bed of Solomon; sixty valiant men [are] about it of the valiant of Israel.

8 They all hold swords, [being] expert in war; each one [has] his sword upon his thigh because of the fears of the night.

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

10 He made its pillars [of] silver, the bottom of it [of] gold, the covering of it [of] purple, its interior being paved [with] love, for the virgins of Jerusalem.

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