The Bride’s Troubled Dream
“On my bed night after night I sought him
aWhom my soul loves;
I bsought him but did not find him.
2 ‘I must arise now and go about the city;
In the astreets and in the squares
I must seek him whom my soul loves.’
I sought him but did not find him.
3 aThe watchmen who go about the city found me,
And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
4 aScarcely had I passed them by
When I found him whom my soul loves;
I bseized him and would not let him go
Until I had cbrought him to my mother’s house,
And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”
5 “I acall you to solemnly swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the bgazelles or by the hinds of the field,
That you do not arouse or awaken my love
Until she pleases.”
Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day
6 “aWho is this coming up from the wilderness
Like bcolumns of smoke,
As rising incense of cmyrrh and dfrankincense,
With all scented powders of the merchant?
7 Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon;
Sixty mighty men around it,
Of the mighty men of Israel.
8 All of them are those who seize the sword,
aLearned in war;
Each man has his bsword at his side,
Guarding against the cdreadful things of the night.
9 King Solomon has made for himself a sedan chair
From the timber of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
Its back of gold
And its seat of purple fabric,
With its interior inlaid with love
By the adaughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go forth and see, O adaughters of Zion,
King Solomon with the crown
With which his mother has crowned him
On the bday of his wedding,
And on the day of his gladness of heart.”