Song of Songs

The Song of Solomon, chapter 1, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 1 New English Translation

Title/Superscription

   1 Solomon's Most Excellent Love Song.

The Desire for Love

   2 (The Beloved to Her Lover) Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine.
   3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful; your name is like the finest perfume. No wonder the young women adore you!
   4 Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers! (The Maidens to the Lover) We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. (The Beloved to Her Lover) How rightly the young women adore you!

The Country Maiden and the Daughters of Jerusalem

   5 (The Beloved to the Maidens) I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Qedar, lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah.
   6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, for the sun has burned my skin. My brothers were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards. Alas, my own vineyard I could not keep!

The Shepherd and the Shepherdess

   7 (The Beloved to Her Lover) Tell me, O you whom my heart loves, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest I wander around beside the flocks of your companions!
   8 (The Lover to His Beloved) If you do not know, O most beautiful of women, simply follow the tracks of my flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.

The Beautiful Mare and the Fragrant Myrrh

   9 (The Lover to His Beloved) O my beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh's stallions.
   10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments; your neck is lovely with strings of jewels.
   11 We will make for you gold ornaments studded with silver.
   12 (The Beloved about Her Lover) While the king was at his banqueting table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
   13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh spending the night between my breasts.
   14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-Gedi.

Mutual Praise and Admiration

   15 (The Lover to His Beloved) Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved! Oh, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves!
   16 (The Beloved to Her Lover) Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are! The lush foliage is our canopied bed;
   17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber; the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.

King James Version

   1 The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
   2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
   3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.
   4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
   5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
   6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
   7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?
   8 ¶ If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.
   9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
   10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
   11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
   12 ¶ While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
   13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
   14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.
   15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.
   16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
   17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.