Song of Songs Chapter 1

1The song of songs of Solomon

2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.

3Your ointments have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is poured out like perfume. No wonder maidens love you!

4Draw me after you, let us run! The king has brought me into his chambers. Let us rejoice and be glad in you; let us extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you!

5I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

6Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me keeper of the vineyards; my very own vineyard I have not kept.

7Tell me, the one my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you make it lie down at noon? Why should I be as one veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

8If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, go out yourself in the footsteps of the flock and graze your kids by the shepherds’ tents.

9I compare you, my darling, to my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

10Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads.

11Ornaments of gold we will make for you with spangles of silver.

12While the king is on his couch, my nard spreads its fragrance.

13My lover is my pouch of myrrh, passing the night between my breasts.

14My love is to me a spray of henna blooms in the vineyards of En-gedi.

15How lovely you are, my darling, how lovely! Your eyes are doves.

16How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, so delightful! Yes, our couch is luxuriant.

17The beams of our houses are cedar trees, our panels are cypress trees.