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3. Beloved

¹ All night long on my bed
   I looked for the one my heart loves;
   I looked for him but did not find him.
² I will get up now and go about the city,
   through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
   So I looked for him but did not find him.
³ The watchmen found me
   as they made their rounds in the city.
   “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
   when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
   till I had brought him to my mother’s house,
   to the room of the one who conceived me.
⁵ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
   by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
   until it so desires.

    ⁶ Who is this coming up from the wilderness
   like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and incense
   made from all the spices of the merchant?
⁷ Look! It is Solomon’s carriage,
   escorted by sixty warriors,
   the noblest of Israel,
⁸ all of them wearing the sword,
   all experienced in battle,
each with his sword at his side,
   prepared for the terrors of the night.
⁹ King Solomon made for himself the carriage;
   he made it of wood from Lebanon.
¹⁰ Its posts he made of silver,
   its base of gold.
Its seat was upholstered with purple,
   its interior inlaid with love.
Daughters of Jerusalem, ¹¹ come out,
   and look, you daughters of Zion.
Look Or interior lovingly inlaid / by the daughters of Jerusalem. / Come out, you daughters of Zion, / and look on King Solomon wearing a crown,
   the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
   the day his heart rejoiced.