Song / Belonging, a Night Search, and the Vineyard Charge

Belonging, a Night Search, and the Vineyard Charge

Song 2:16-3:11

Chapter 2

¹⁶ "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he is the companion in the lilies." ¹⁷ Until the day blows cool and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.

Chapter 3

¹ On my couches at night I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. ² I will arise now and I will go about in the city, in the streets and in the broad places. I will seek her whom my vital life force has loved. I sought him and I did not find him. ³ The watchmen found me, the ones who go around in the city. "Have you seen the one my soul loves?" ⁴ Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my soul loved. I grasped him and would not let him go until I had brought him to the house of my mother and to the chamber of the one who had taught me. ⁵ I have made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the rams of the field, that you not arouse or awaken love until she desires. ⁶ Who is this who has come up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, from the incense of myrrh and frankincense, from every powder of the merchant? ⁷ Look, it is Solomon's bed, surrounded by sixty mighty men from the mighty men of Israel. ⁸ All of them grasping sword, teachers of war, each man with his sword on his thigh because of terror in the night. ⁹ King Solomon made a palanquin for himself from the trees of Lebanon. ¹⁰ Its pillars he made of silver, its couch of gold, its chariot of purple, its interior paved with love from the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹ Go out and see, O daughters of Zion, King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of the joy of his heart.