Song of Solomon 3

At night, on my bed, I looked for the one I love. I looked for him, but I did not find him.

1By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

NoteThe Hebrew has a plural, literally "on my nights", night after night, or all through the night, rather than one particular evening. The Hebrew also gives no signal whether the search that follows is something happening or something dreamed; the ambiguity is in the original.

2I said, I will get up now and go through the city, through its streets and its open squares. I will look for the one I love. So I looked for him, but I did not find him.

2I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

NoteA woman walking the city alone after dark was outside ordinary custom in this period, and the poem expects the reader to feel that. The "open squares" are the wide places just inside the city gates where markets and public business were held.

3The watchmen making their rounds through the city found me. I said to them, Have you seen the one I love?

3The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

NoteWatchmen were the city's night patrol, posted on the walls and through the streets to guard against thieves and raiders. They were the nearest thing to police, so meeting them at night is both plausible and slightly dangerous for her.

4I had barely gone past them when I found the one I love. I held on to him and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the room of the one who gave birth to me.

4It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

NoteIn this culture the bride was normally brought to the husband's family home. A woman bringing a man to her mother's house reverses that, and "the room of the one who gave birth to me" points to the private inner quarters where the women of the household lived. Elsewhere in the Song too the woman locates herself by her mother rather than her father.

5Daughters of Jerusalem, I put you under oath by the gazelles and the deer of the open country: do not stir up or wake love until it is ready.

5I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

NoteThe "daughters of Jerusalem" are the young women of the city, a group the woman speaks to several times in the poem, rather like a chorus. "I put you under oath" is a formal swearing formula: oaths were normally sworn by God, and swearing by gazelles and deer is a playful substitution, the Hebrew words sound close to two divine titles. This whole line is a refrain that recurs at 2:7 and 8:4. The last phrase is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean until love itself is ready, or until the beloved wishes it.

6Who is this coming up out of the desert like columns of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense, with every fragrant powder the merchant sells?

6Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

Note"Who is this" is grammatically feminine in Hebrew, so the figure approaching may be the bride, or the whole procession described in the next verses; the poem does not settle it. The "desert" is open uncultivated grazing land, not sand dunes. Myrrh and frankincense are aromatic tree resins imported from southern Arabia and East Africa, costly luxury goods, burned or carried for their scent, which is why the procession is visible as a column of smoke.

7Look, it is Solomon's carrying couch. Sixty fighting men are around it, chosen from the fighting men of Israel.

7Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

NoteThe King James "bed" translates a word for a portable couch or litter carried on poles by bearers, a way for the wealthy to travel seated or reclining. "Threescore" is sixty. The escorts are the elite class of professional warriors, the same term used of David's celebrated fighting men.

8All of them carry swords and are trained for war. Each man has his sword at his side because of the terror of the night.

8They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

Note"Fear in the night" means the dangers the darkness might bring: bandits on the roads was the everyday sense, though the phrase could also carry the older fear of nighttime spirits.

9King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon.

9King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

NoteThe word translated "chariot" or "carriage" appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible and its meaning is uncertain, a sedan chair, a canopied litter, or a pavilion. It is probably a loan word from Greek or Persian. "Wood of Lebanon" means cedar, the prestige timber of the region, imported at great cost.

10He made its posts of silver, its base of gold, and its seat of purple cloth. Its inside was fitted out with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.

10He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

NotePurple cloth was dyed with a secretion from murex sea snails, so expensive that it marked royalty. The last clause is obscure in Hebrew: "inlaid with love" may be a poetic flourish, or the word may be a term for leather or ebony that has been misread over time. It is also unclear whether "from the daughters of Jerusalem" describes who did the inlaying or belongs with the call that begins the next verse.

11Come out, daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon. He is wearing the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day, the day his heart was glad.

11Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

NoteZion is the hill Jerusalem was built on, so "daughters of Zion" is the same group addressed as "daughters of Jerusalem" earlier. The crown here is not a royal crown of state (Israelite kings were not crowned by their mothers) but the garland a bridegroom wore at his wedding. "Espousals" in 1611 English meant the wedding itself, not a modern engagement.