Sharper Iron — God’s Gift of Marriage – Song of Solomon 3:1-4:7: The Bridegroom Comes, Awake!

3 On my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
    I sought him, but found him not.
² I will rise now and go about the city,
    in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
    I sought him, but found him not.
³ The watchmen found me
    as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
    when I found him whom my soul loves.
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 who conceived me.
⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases.

⁶ What is that coming up from the wilderness
    like columns of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
    with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?
⁷ Behold, it is the litter^[a] of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men,
    some of the mighty men of Israel,
⁸ all of them wearing swords
    and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
    against terror by night.
⁹ King Solomon made himself a carriage^[b]
    from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its posts of silver,
    its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with love
    by the daughters of Jerusalem.
¹¹ Go out, O daughters of Zion,
    and look upon King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him
    on the day of his wedding,
    on the day of the gladness of his heart.

4 Behold, you are beautiful, my love,
    behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
    behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
² Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
    that have come up from the washing,
all of which bear twins,
    and not one among them has lost its young.
³ Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
    and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David,
    built in rows of stone;^[c]
on it hang a thousand shields,
    all of them shields of warriors.
⁵ Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle,
    that graze among the lilies.
⁶ Until the day breathes
    and the shadows flee,
I will go away to the mountain of myrrh
    and the hill of frankincense.
⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my love;
    there is no flaw in you.