3 1 The Church desireth to be joined inseparably to Christ her husband. 6 Her deliverance out of the wilderness.

¹ In my bed by ^[a]night I sought him that my soul loved: I sought him, but I found him not.

² I will rise therefore now, and go about in the city, by the streets, and by the open places, and will ^[b]seek him that my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

³ The ^[c]watchmen that went about the city, found me: to whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?

⁴ When I had passed a little from them, then I found him whom my soul loved: I took hold on him, and left him not, till I had brought him unto my mother’s house, into the chamber of her that conceived me.

^5 [d]I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor waken my love until she please.

⁶ Who is she that cometh up out of the ^[e]wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense, and with all the ^[f]spices of the merchant?

⁷ Behold his ^[g]bed, which is Solomon’s: threescore strong men are round about it, of the valiant men of Israel.

⁸ They all handle the sword, and are expert in war, everyone hath his sword upon his thigh for the fear ^[h]by night.

⁹ King Solomon made himself a ^[i]palace of the trees of Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made the pillars thereof of silver, and the pavement thereof of gold, the hangings thereof of purple, whose midst was paved with the love of the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹ Come forth, ye ^[j]daughters of Zion, and behold the King Solomon with the ^[k]crown, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his marriage, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.