Song of Songs 1

• 1. This is Solomon's song of songs, more wonderful than any other.
• 2. Kiss me again and again, for your love is sweeter than wine.
• 3. How fragrant your cologne, and how pleasing your name! No wonder all the young women love you!
• 4. Take me with you. Come, lets run! Bring me into your bedroom, O my king. How happy we are for him! We praise his love even more than wine. How right that the young women love you!
• 5. "I am dark and beautiful, O women of Jerusalem, tanned as the dark tents of Kedar. Yes, even as the tents of Solomon!
• 6. "Don't look down on me, you fair city girls, just because my complexion is so dark. The sun has burned my skin. My brothers were angry with me and sent me out to tend the vineyards in the hot sun. Now see what it has done to me!
• 7. "Tell me, O my love, where are you leading your flock today? Where will you rest your sheep at noon? For why should I wander like a prostitute among the flocks of your companions?"
• 8. If you dont know, O most beautiful woman, follow the trail of my flock to the shepherds tents, and there feed your young goats.
• 9. What a lovely filly you are, my beloved one!
• 10. How lovely are your cheeks, with your earrings setting them afire! How stately is your neck, accented with a long string of jewels.
• 11. We will make earrings of gold for you and beads of silver.
• 12. The king is lying on his couch, enchanted by the fragrance of my perfume.
• 13. My lover is like a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
• 14. He is like a bouquet of flowers in the gardens of En-gedi.
• 15. How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes are soft like doves.
• 16. What a lovely, pleasant sight you are, my love, as we lie here on the grass,
• 17. shaded by cedar trees and spreading firs.

Song of Songs 2

• 1. I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley.
• 2. Yes, compared to other women, my beloved is like a lily among thorns.
• 3. And compared to other youths, my lover is like the finest apple tree in the orchard. I am seated in his delightful shade, and his fruit is delicious to eat.
• 4. He brings me to the banquet hall, so everyone can see how much he loves me.
• 5. Oh, feed me with your love--your `raisins and your `apples--for I am utterly lovesick!
• 6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.
• 7. "Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and the deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right.
• 8. "Ah, I hear him--my lover! Here he comes, leaping on the mountains and bounding over the hills.
• 9. My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young deer. Look, there he is behind the wall! Now he is looking in through the window, gazing into the room.
• 10. "My lover said to me, `Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away.
• 11. For the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone.
• 12. The flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come, even the cooing of turtledoves.
• 13. The fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Yes, spring is here! Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away.'"
• 14. My dove is hiding behind some rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff. Let me see you; let me hear your voice. For your voice is pleasant, and you are lovely.
• 15. Quick! Catch all the little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of your love, for the grapevines are all in blossom.
• 16. My lover is mine, and I am his. He feeds among the lilies!
• 17. Before the dawn comes and the shadows flee away, come back to me, my love. Run like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.

Song of Songs 3

• 1. One night as I lay in bed, I yearned deeply for my lover, but he did not come.
• 2. So I said to myself, `I will get up now and roam the city, searching for him in all its streets and squares. But my search was in vain.
• 3. The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I said to them, `Have you seen him anywhere, this one I love so much?
• 4. A little while later I found him and held him. I didnt let him go until I had brought him to my childhood home, into my mothers bedroom, where I had been conceived.
• 5. "Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and the deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right. "
• 6. Who is this sweeping in from the deserts like a cloud of smoke along the ground? Who is it that smells of myrrh and frankincense and every other spice?
• 7. Look, it is Solomons carriage, with sixty of Israels mightiest men surrounding it.
• 8. They are all skilled swordsmen and experienced warriors. Each one wears a sword on his thigh, ready to defend the king against an attack during the night.
• 9. "King Solomon has built a carriage for himself from wood imported from Lebanon's forests.
• 10. Its posts are of silver, its canopy is gold, and its seat is upholstered in purple cloth. Its interior was a gift of love from the young women of Jerusalem."
• 11. Go out to look upon King Solomon, O young women of Jerusalem. See the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, the day of his gladness.

New Living Translation: 234 of 324 days.