1 Bride: May he kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.. Groom to Bride: So much better than wine are your breasts, 2 fragranced with the finest perfumes. Bride to Groom: Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you. 3 Draw me forward. Chorus to Bride: We will run after you in the odor of your perfumes. Bride to Chorus: The king has led me into his storerooms. Chorus to Bride: We will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine. Groom to Bride: The righteous love you. 4 Bride to Chorus: O daughters of Jerusalem: I am black, but shapely, like the tabernacles of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon. 5 Do not be concerned that I am dark, for the sun has changed my color. The sons of my mother have fought against me. They have made me the keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept. 6 Bride to Groom: Reveal to me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you recline at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions. 7 Groom to Bride: If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, then go out and follow after the steps of the flocks, and pasture your young goats beside the tabernacles of the shepherds. 8 O my love, I have compared you to my company of horsemen against the chariots of Pharaoh. 9 Your cheeks are beautiful, like those of a turtledove. Your neck is like a bejeweled collar. 10 Chorus to Bride: We will fashion for you chains of gold, accented with reddened silver. 11 Bride to Chorus: While the king was taking his rest, my aromatic ointment sent forth its odor. 12 My beloved is a bundle of myrrh to me. He shall abide between my breasts. 13 My beloved is a cluster of Cyprus grapes to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi. 14 Groom to Bride: Behold, you are beautiful, O my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are those of a dove. 15 Bride to Groom: Behold, you are handsome, O my beloved, and graceful. Our bed is flourishing. 16 Groom to Bride: The timbers of our houses are of cedar; our ceilings are of cypress.
Song of Songs · Catholic Public Domain Version
Song of Songs 1 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
Cross references (15)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Song of Songs 4:10; Song of Songs 1:4; Psalm 36:7; Psalm 63:3–5; Isaiah 55:1–2
- 3 Ecclesiastes 7:1; Exodus 30:23–28; Song of Songs 4:10; John 12:3; Psalm 45:7–8
- 4 John 6:44; Hosea 11:4; Psalm 45:14–15; John 12:32; Hebrews 12:1
- 5 Song of Songs 2:14; Luke 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Song of Songs 5:16; Song of Songs 2:7
- 6 Song of Songs 8:11–12; Luke 12:51–53; Mark 4:6; Jeremiah 12:6; Psalm 69:8
- 7 Song of Songs 3:1–4; Isaiah 13:20; Psalm 23:1–2; Psalm 28:1; Genesis 37:16
- 8 Song of Songs 6:1; Song of Songs 5:9; James 2:21; James 5:10; Hebrews 11:4–40
- 9 Song of Songs 2:10; Song of Songs 2:13; John 15:14–15; Isaiah 31:1; Song of Songs 2:2
- 10 Ezekiel 16:11–13; 1 Peter 3:4; Song of Songs 5:13; Genesis 24:47; Song of Songs 4:9
- 11 Psalm 149:4; Philippians 3:21; Genesis 1:26; Ephesians 5:25–27; Song of Songs 8:9
- 12 John 12:3; Revelation 3:20; Mark 14:3; Song of Songs 4:13–16; Luke 24:30–32
- 13 John 19:39; Psalm 45:8; Ephesians 3:17; Song of Songs 4:14; Genesis 43:11
- 14 Song of Songs 2:3; 1 Samuel 23:29–24:1; Song of Songs 1:13; Joshua 15:62; Song of Songs 4:13–14
- 15 Song of Songs 4:1; Song of Songs 5:12; Song of Songs 4:7; Ephesians 1:17–18; 2 Corinthians 11:2–3
- 16 Song of Songs 2:3; Psalm 45:2; Zechariah 9:17; Revelation 5:11–13; Song of Songs 5:10–16
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
An example of this is that passage in the Song of Solomon, "I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon." For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, but am now comely as the curtains of Solomon.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For now meanwhile thou standest outside the door: but God grant that you all may say, The King hath brought me into His chamber.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
So then this Bridegroom, "fair in beauty above the children of men," became deformed that He might make His Spouse fair to whom it is said, "O thou beauteous among women," of whom it is said, "Who is this that cometh up, whitened" with the brightness of light, not the colouring of falsehood!
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
… with you, all Beauteous as He was, prayed for you; "Father," saith He, "forgive them, for they know not what they do." For if He were without comeliness, how is it that she loveth Him, who saith, "Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth"? How is it that she loveth Him?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)