Old Testament
Song of Solomon 3
Overview
The chapter opens with the bride's restless night: on her bed she sought the one her soul loves but did not find him, so she rose and roamed the city until she found him and would not let him go until she brought him to her mother's house. The third refrain charges the daughters of Jerusalem again not to awaken love before its time. Then the scene shifts dramatically to a royal wedding procession: "Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke?" Solomon's splendid litter approaches, escorted by sixty mighty men, fashioned of cedar, silver, gold, and purple, and the daughters of Zion are summoned to behold King Solomon crowned on his wedding day, "the day of the gladness of his heart."
1By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
2I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
3The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said , Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
4It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
5I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
6Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
7Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
8They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
9King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
10He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
11Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.