The Lost Lover is Found

The Beloved about Her Lover:

1All night long on my bed

I longed for my lover.

I longed for him but he never appeared.

2“I will arise and look all around throughout the town,

and throughout the streets and squares;

I will search for my beloved.”

I searched for him but I did not find him.

3The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls.

“Have you seen my beloved?”

4Scarcely had I passed them by

when I found my beloved!

I held onto him tightly and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

to the bedroom chamber of the one who conceived me.

The Adjuration Refrain

The Beloved to the Maidens:

5I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields:

“Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Royal Wedding Procession

The Speaker:

6Who is this coming up from the desert

like a column of smoke,

like a fragrant billow of myrrh and frankincense,

every kind of fragrant powder of the traveling merchants?

7Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch!

It is surrounded by sixty warriors,

some of Israel’s mightiest warriors.

8All of them are skilled with a sword,

well-trained in the art of warfare.

Each has his sword at his side,

to guard against the terrors of the night.

9King Solomon made a sedan chair for himself

of wood imported from Lebanon.

10Its posts were made of silver;

its back was made of gold.

Its seat was upholstered with purple wool;

its interior was inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem.

11Come out, O maidens of Zion,

and gaze upon King Solomon!

He is wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him

on his wedding day,

on the most joyous day of his life!