The Bride’s Troubled Dream

(The Shulammite Bride)

1“On my bed night after night [I dreamed that] I sought the one

Whom my soul loves;

I sought him but did not find him.

2“I said ‘So I must arise now and go out into the city;

Into the streets and into the squares [places I do not know]

I must seek him whom my soul loves.’

I sought him but I did not find him.

3“The watchmen who go around the city found me,

And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

4“Scarcely had I passed them

When I found him whom my soul loves.

I held on to him and would not let him go

Until I had brought him to my mother’s house,

And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

(The Bridegroom)

5“I command that you take an oath, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the gazelles or by the does of the field,

That you do not rouse nor awaken my love

Until she pleases.”

Solomon’s Wedding Day

(The Shulammite Bride)

6“What is this coming up from the wilderness

Like [stately] pillars of smoke

Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

With all the fragrant powders of the merchant?”

(The Chorus)

7“Behold, it is the couch ([a]palanquin) of Solomon;

Sixty mighty men around it,

Of the mighty men of Israel.

8“All of them handle the sword,

All expert in war;

Each man has his sword at his thigh,

Guarding against the terrors of the night.

9“King Solomon has made for himself a palanquin

From the [cedar] wood of Lebanon.

10“He made its posts of silver,

Its back of gold,

Its seat of purple cloth,

The interior lovingly and intricately wrought

By the daughters of Jerusalem.

11“Go forth, O daughters of Zion,

And gaze on King Solomon wearing the crown

With which his mother [Bathsheba] has crowned him

On the day of his wedding,

On the day of his gladness of heart.”

[a] 7 A conveyance that was used in ancient times especially for the transport of one person, that consisted of an enclosed sedan chair usually in the form of a box with wooden shutters, and that is carried on the shoulders of men by means of projecting poles.