Song of Solomon 1 - Good News Bible (Catholic edition in Septuagint order)

The First Song

¹ The most beautiful of songs, by Solomon.

² Your lips cover me with kisses; your love is better than wine.

³ There is a fragrance about you; the sound of your name recalls it. No woman could help loving you.

⁴ Take me with you, and we'll run away; be my king and take me to your room. We will be happy together, drink deep, and lose ourselves in love. No wonder all women love you!

⁵ Women of Jerusalem, I am dark but beautiful, dark as the desert tents of Kedar, but beautiful as the curtains in Solomon's palace.

⁶ Don't look down on me because of my colour, because the sun has tanned me. My brothers were angry with me and made me work in the vineyard. I had no time to care for myself.

⁷ Tell me, my love, Where will you lead your flock to graze? Where will they rest from the noonday sun? Why should I need to look for you among the flocks of the other shepherds?

⁸ Don't you know the place, loveliest of women? Go and follow the flock; find pasture for your goats near the tents of the shepherds.

⁹ You, my love, excite men as a mare excites the stallions of Pharaoh's chariots.

¹⁰ Your hair is beautiful upon your cheeks and falls along your neck like jewels.

¹¹ But we will make for you a chain of gold with ornaments of silver.

¹² My king was lying on his couch, and my perfume filled the air with fragrance.

¹³ My lover has the scent of myrrh as he lies upon my breasts.

¹⁴ My lover is like the wild flowers that bloom in the vineyards at Engedi.

¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my love; how your eyes shine with love!

¹⁶ How handsome you are, my dearest; how you delight me! The green grass will be our bed;

¹⁷ the cedars will be the beams of our house, and the cypress trees the ceiling.