1 By night in my bed I sought him, whom my soul loveth: yea, diligently sought I him, but I found him not.
2 I will get up, thought I, and go about the city, in the ways and in all the streets will I seek him whom my soul loveth: but when I sought him, I found him not.
3 The watchmen that go about the city found me, to whom I said: Saw ye not him whom my soul loveth?
4 So when I was a little past them, I found him whom my soul loveth. I have gotten hold upon him, and will not let him go, until I bring him into my mother's house, and in to her chamber that bare me.
5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the Roes, and Hinds of the field, that ye wake not up my love nor touch her, till she be content herself.
6 Who is this, that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, as it were a smell of Myrrh, frankincense and all manner spices of the Apothecary?
7 Behold, about Solomon's bedstead there stand sixty valiant men of the most mighty in Israel.
8 They hold swords every one, and are expert in war. Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night.
9 King Solomon hath made himself a bedstead of the wood of Lebanon:
10 the pillars are of silver, the covering of gold, the seat of purple, the ground pleasantly paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon in the crown, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his marriage, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.