Song of Solomon 3

2 So I said to myself, `I will get up now and roam the city, searching for him in all its streets and squares.' But my search was in vain.

3 The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I said to them, `Have you seen him anywhere, this one I love so much?'

4 A little while later I found him and held him. I didn't let him go until I had brought him to my childhood home, into my mother's bedroom, where I had been conceived.

5 "Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and the deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right.*" [Young Women of Jerusalem:]¹

6 "Who is this sweeping in from the deserts like a cloud of smoke along the ground? Who is it that smells of myrrh and frankincense and every other spice?

7 Look, it is Solomon's carriage, with sixty of Israel's mightiest men surrounding it.

8 They are all skilled swordsmen and experienced warriors. Each one wears a sword on his thigh, ready to defend the king against an attack during the night.

9 "King Solomon has built a carriage for himself from wood imported from Lebanon's forests.

10 Its posts are of silver, its canopy is gold, and its seat is upholstered in purple cloth. Its interior was a gift of love from the young women of Jerusalem." [Young Woman:]

11 "Go out to look upon King Solomon, O young women of Jerusalem.* See the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, the day of his gladness."²

Read Song of Solomon 4

1: Or not to awaken love until it is ready.

2: Hebrew Zion.

^{New Living Translation Bible and Notes used with permission Tyndale House Publishers.}