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¹ All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

² I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

³ The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

⁴ Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

⁵ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

⁶ Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

⁷ Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,

⁸ all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.

⁹ King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.

¹⁰ Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem, ¹¹ come out, and look, you daughters of Zion. Look Or interior lovingly inlaid / by the daughters of Jerusalem. / 11 Come out, you daughters of Zion, / and look on King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.