Song of Solomon 3:1-9 ▼

1 All night long on my bed I longed for my lover. I longed for him but he never appeared.

2 I will arise and look all around throughout the town, and throughout the streets and squares; I will search for my beloved.| I searched for him but I did not find him.

3 The night watchmen found me--the ones who guard the city walls. |Have you seen my beloved?|

4 Scarcely had I passed them by when I found my beloved! I held onto him tightly and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the bedroom chamber of the one who conceived me.

5 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: |Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!|

6 Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, like a fragrant billow of myrrh and frankincense, every kind of fragrant powder of the traveling merchants?

7 Look! It is Solomon's portable couch! It is surrounded by sixty warriors, some of Israel's mightiest warriors.

8 All of them are skilled with a sword, well-trained in the art of warfare. Each has his sword at his side, to guard against the terrors of the night.

9 King Solomon made a sedan chair for himself of wood imported from Lebanon.