3

  1All night long on my bed
   I looked for the one my heart loves;
   I looked for him but did not find him.
  2I 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.
  3The watchmen found me
   as they made their rounds in the city.
   “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
  4Scarcely 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.
  5Daughters 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.

  6Who 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?
  7Look! It is Solomon’s carriage,
   escorted by sixty warriors,
   the noblest of Israel,
  8all of them wearing the sword,
   all experienced in battle,
  each with his sword at his side,
   prepared for the terrors of the night.
  9King Solomon made for himself the carriage;
   he made it of wood from Lebanon.
  10Its posts he made of silver,
   its base of gold.
  Its seat was upholstered with purple,
   its interior inlaid with love.
  Daughters of Jerusalem,
  11come out,
   and look, you daughters of Zion.
  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.

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