• The Bride’s Troubled Dream

  • 1 “On my bed night after night I sought him Whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him.
  • 2 ‘I must arise now and go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I must seek him whom my soul loves.’ I sought him but did not find him.
  • 3 “The watchmen who go about the city found me, And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
  • 4 “Scarcely had I passed them by When I found him whom my soul loves; I seized him and would not let him go Until I had brought him to my mother’s house, And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”
  • 5 “I call you to solemnly swear, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, That you do not arouse or awaken my love Until she pleases.”

  • Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day

  • 6 “Who is this coming up from the wilderness Like columns of smoke, As rising incense of myrrh and frankincense, With all scented powders of the merchant?
  • 7 “Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon; Sixty mighty men around it, Of the mighty men of Israel.
  • 8 “All of them are those who seize the sword, Learned in war; Each man has his sword at his side, Guarding against the dreadful things of the night.
  • 9 “King Solomon has made for himself a sedan chair From the timber of Lebanon.
  • 10 “He made its posts of silver, Its back of gold And its seat of purple fabric, With its interior inlaid with love By the daughters of Jerusalem.
  • 11 “Go forth and see, O daughters of Zion, King Solomon with the crown With which his mother has crowned him On the day of his wedding, And on the day of his gladness of heart.”