The Song of Songs, which is for Solomon.

May you kiss me passionately with your lips,
    for your love is better than wine.
As fragrance, your perfumes are delightful;
    your name is poured out perfume;
        therefore young women love you.
Draw me after you, let us run!
    May the king bring me into his chambers!
Let us be joyful and let us rejoice in you;
    let us extol your love more than wine.
        Rightly do they love you!

I am black but beautiful, O maidens of Jerusalem,
    like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
Do not gaze at me because I am black,
    because the sun has stared at me.
The sons of my mother were angry with me;
    they made me keeper of the vineyards,
        but my own "vineyard" I did not keep.

Tell me, you whom my heart loves,
    where do you pasture your flock,
        where do your sheep lie down at the noon?
For why should I be like one who is veiled
    beside the flocks of your companions?
If you do not know, O fairest among women,
    follow the tracks of the flock,
        and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.

To a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh,
    I compare you, my beloved.
Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,
    your neck with strings of jewels.
We will make ornaments of gold for you
    with studs of silver.

While the king was on his couch,
    my nard gave its fragrance.
My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh,
    he spends the night between my breasts.
My beloved is to me a cluster of blossoms of henna
    in the vineyards of En Gedi.

Look! You are beautiful, my beloved.
    Look! You are beautiful;
        your eyes are doves.
Look! You are beautiful, my beloved,
    truly pleasant.
Truly our couch is verdant;
    the beams of our house are cedar;
        our rafter is cypress.

I am a rose of Sharon,
    a lily of the valleys.
Like a lily among the thorns,
    so is my love among the maidens.
As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
    so is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I sat down with delight,
    and his fruit was sweet to my palate.

He brought me to the house of the wine,
    and his intention was love toward me.
Sustain me with the raisins,
    refresh me with the apples,
for I am lovesick.

His left hand is under my head,
    and his right hand embraces me.
I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or by the does of the field,
do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

The voice of my beloved!
    Look! Here he comes leaping upon the mountains,
        bounding over the hills!
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
    Look! He is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the window,
    looking through the lattice.
My beloved answered and said to me,
    "Arise, my beloved! Come, my beauty!
For look! The winter is over;
    the rainy season has turned and gone away.
The blossoms appear in the land;
    the time of singing has arrived;
the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her figs,
    and the vines are in blossom; they give fragrance.
Arise, my beloved! Come, my beauty!"
My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
    in the secluded place in the mountain,
Let me see your face,
    let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
Catch for us the foxes,
    the little foxes destroying vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom!

My beloved belongs to me and I belong to him;
    he pastures his flock among the lilies.
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee,
    turn, my beloved!
        Be like a gazelle or young stag on the cleft mountains.

On my bed in the night,
    I sought him whom my heart loves.
I sought him, but I did not find him.
Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city,
    in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my heart loves.
    I sought him, but I did not find him.
The sentinels who go about in the city found me.
    "Have you seen the one whom my heart loves?"
Scarcely had I passed by them
    when I found him whom my heart loves.
I held him and I would not let him go
    until I brought him to the house of my mother,
        into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.

I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or by the does of the field,
do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

What is this coming up from the desert
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
    from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch!
    Sixty mighty men surround it,
        the mighty men of Israel.
All of them wield swords;
    they are trained in warfare,
each with his sword at his thigh
    to guard against terror in the night.
King Solomon made for himself a sedan chair
    from the wood of Lebanon.
He made its column of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple;
    its interior is inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem.
Come out and look, O maidens of Zion, at King Solomon,
    at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
    on the day of the joy of his heart!

O God, give your judgments to the king,
and your righteousness to the king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
Let the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills in righteousness.
May he provide justice for the poor of the people,
save the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor.
May he live long while the sun endures
as long as the moon for all generations.
May he descend like rain on mown grass,
like showers watering the earth.
May what is right blossom in his days
and an abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.
And may he rule from sea up to sea,
and from the River to the edges of the land.
Let the desert dwellers bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
Let the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute.
Let the kings of Sheba and Seba present gifts,
and let all kings bow down to him.
Let all nations serve him.
Indeed he will deliver the needy who is crying for help,
and the afflicted who has no helper.
He will take pity on the helpless and needy,
and the lives of the needy he will save.
From oppression and from violence
he will redeem their lives,
and their blood will be precious in his eyes.
So may he live, and may gold from Sheba be given to him,
and may prayers be offered for him continually.
May blessings be invoked for him all day long.
May there be an abundance of grain in the land
even on the top of the mountains.
May his crop sway like the trees of Lebanon,
and may those from the city blossom like the grass of the earth.
May his name endure forever.
May his name increase as long as the sun shines,
and let them be blessed in him.
Let all nations call him blessed.
Blessed be Yahweh God, the God of Israel,
who alone does wonderful things.
And blessed be his glorious name forever,
and may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.
The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are completed.