Song of Songs 3 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Love’s Dream

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](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.(B)
3 The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”(C)
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.(D)
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!(E)

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?(F)
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.(G)
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,(H)
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.

Footnotes

  1. 3.1Gk: Heb lacks this line
  2. 3.10Cn Compare Gk: Heb with love from the daughters
  3. 3.11Gk: Heb adds daughters of Zion

Cross references

  1. 3.1 : Song 1.7; 5.6; Isa 26.9
  2. 3.2 : Jer 5.1
  3. 3.3 : Song 5.7
  4. 3.4 : Song 8.2
  5. 3.5 : Song 2.7; 8.4
  6. 3.6 : Song 1.13; 4.6, 14; 8.5
  7. 3.8 : Ps 45.3; 91.5; Jer 50.9
  8. 3.10 : Song 1.5