Song of Solomon 1Contemporary English Version (CEV)
Love Is Better than Wine
1 This is Solomon’s most beautiful song.
She Speaks:
2 Kiss me tenderly! Your love is better than wine, 3 and you smell so sweet. All the young women adore you; the very mention of your name is like spreading perfume. 4 Hurry, my king! Let’s hurry. 5 Take me to your home.
Hook
The Young Women Speak:
We are happy for you! And we praise your love even more than wine.
She Speaks:
Young women of Jerusalem, it is only right that you should adore him. My skin is dark and beautiful, like a tent in the desert or like Solomon’s curtains. 6 Don’t stare at me just because the sun has darkened my skin. My brothers were angry with me; they made me work in the vineyard, and so I neglected my complexion.
Don’t let the other shepherds think badly of me.[a] 7 I’m not one of those women who shamelessly follow after shepherds.[b] My darling, I love you! Where do you feed your sheep and let them rest at noon?
He Speaks:
8 My dearest, if you don’t know, just follow the path of the sheep. Then feed your young goats near the shepherds’ tents. 9 You move as gracefully as the pony that leads the chariot of the king. 10 Earrings add to your beauty, and you wear a necklace of precious stones. 11 Let’s make you some jewelry of gold, woven with silver.
She Speaks:
12 My king, while you were on your couch, my love was a magic charm.[c] 13 My darling, you are perfume between my breasts; 14 you are flower blossoms from the gardens of En-Gedi.[d]
He Speaks:
15 My darling, you are lovely, so very lovely— your eyes are those of a dove.
She Speaks:
16 My love, you are handsome, truly handsome— the fresh green grass will be our wedding bed 17 in the shade of cedar and cypress trees.
Footnotes:
1.6 Don’t. . . me: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
1.7 I’m. . . shepherds: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
1.12 magic charm: The Hebrew text has “spikenard” (or “nard”), a sweet-smelling ointment made from a plant that comes from India. The ointment was sometimes used as a love charm.
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