Song of Songs 1:1-14

Solomon’s Song of Songs. Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, because your love is better than wine. The smell of your perfume is pleasant, and your name is pleasant like expensive perfume. That’s why the young women love you. Take me with you; let’s run together. The king takes me into his rooms. We will rejoice and be happy with you; we praise your love more than wine. With good reason, the young women love you. I’m dark but lovely, women of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Don’t look at how dark I am, at how dark the sun has made me. My brothers were angry with me and made me tend the vineyards, so I haven’t tended my own vineyard! Tell me, you whom I love, where do you feed your sheep? Where do you let them rest at noon? Why should I look for you near your friend’s sheep, like a woman who wears a veil? You are the most beautiful of women. Surely you know to follow the sheep and feed your young goats near the shepherds’ tents. My darling, you are like a mare among the king’s stallions. Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, and your neck with jewels. We will make for you gold earrings with silver hooks. The smell of my perfume spreads out to the king on his couch. My lover is like a bag of myrrh that lies all night between my breasts. My lover is like a bunch of flowers from the vineyards at En Gedi.