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1. Friends

¹ Solomon’s Song of Songs.

She The main male and female speakers (identified primarily on the basis of the gender of the relevant Hebrew forms) are indicated by the captions He and She respectively. The words of others are marked Friends. In some instances the divisions and their captions are debatable.

    ² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
   for your love is more delightful than wine.
³ Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
   your name is like perfume poured out.
   No wonder the young women love you!
⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry!
   Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Friends

We rejoice and delight in you The Hebrew is masculine singular.;
we will praise your love more than wine.

She

How right they are to adore you!

    ⁵ Dark am I, yet lovely,
   daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
   like the tent curtains of Solomon. Or Salma
⁶ Do not stare at me because I am dark,
   because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
   and made me take care of the vineyards;
   my own vineyard I had to neglect.
⁷ Tell me, you whom I love,
   where you graze your flock
   and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
   beside the flocks of your friends?

Friends

    ⁸ If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
   follow the tracks of the sheep
and graze your young goats
   by the tents of the shepherds.

    ⁹ I liken you, my darling, to a mare
   among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
¹⁰ Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
   your neck with strings of jewels.
¹¹ We will make you earrings of gold,
   studded with silver.

She

    ¹² While the king was at his table,
   my perfume spread its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
   resting between my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
   from the vineyards of En Gedi.

    ¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my darling!
   Oh, how beautiful!
   Your eyes are doves.

She

    ¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved!
   Oh, how charming!
   And our bed is verdant.

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are firs.