Song of Solomon – Expanded Translation by Dmitriy Leo

In preparing this translation, we relied on historical and scholarly sources. Our aim was to convey the precise meaning of this work.

Translator’s Introduction

The sentence structure differs significantly from that of the Synodal translation, but our goal was not simply to do something different; rather, we wanted to convey the precise meaning of this work. Although some words are unclear in translation, we have nevertheless retained them as they appear in the original Hebrew text. We have changed other words relating to the lyrical and cultural narrative of that time according to historical sources.

For example, “the king brought me into his chambers,” or “by the king”—in accordance with a wedding custom common among many peoples, including the Syrians, Israel’s closest neighbors, the bride and groom were called “king” and “queen” (this custom has also been preserved among Slavic peoples).

The “Song of Songs” bears similarities to ancient Greek drama, chiefly seen in the presence of a chorus of the “daughters of Jerusalem,” which periodically joins the lyrical narrative. The word “vineyards” is used in its literal sense; in the second sense, it is a metaphor referring to a young and blossoming girl. In poetic language, the expression “to tend one’s vineyard” means to protect and care for oneself, one’s beauty and freshness, and so on. For example, the line “…your eyes are doves beneath your tresses…” is correctly translated as “…your eyes are like a dove beneath your veil (the Hebrew word meaning a woman’s shawl)…” and so on.

Dmitriy Leo

Song of Songs of Solomon

(Literally: the finest of all songs)

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of “Song of Songs” is placed among the “Hagiographa” (Hebrew: “Ketuvim”), the third and final section of the Hebrew canon. Since the 8th century AD, it has been included among the five “Megillot,” that is, scrolls read during the major festivals, including Passover.

Chapter 1

1. Let him cover me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love (affection, tenderness) is more delightful than wine.
2. Your name is like fragrant perfume, like perfume poured out. Therefore the young women love you.
3. Take (possess, draw) me away, and I will run after you. The bridegroom has brought me into his inner chamber. I rejoice and delight, remembering your love, which is better than wine. No wonder they love you.
4. My friends! (literally, Daughters of Jerusalem) I am dark, but beautiful, like the tents of Kedar, like Solomon’s curtains.
5. Do not stare at me because I am dark—the sun has scorched me. My brothers were angry with me; they made me guard the vineyards. So I could not take care of myself.
6. Tell me, beloved of my soul, where do you pasture your flock? Where do you rest at noon? Why should I wander aimlessly beside the flocks of your companions? (that is, why should I look for you where you are not)
7. If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
8. My beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
9. Your cheeks are beautiful beneath the pendants (head ornament), your neck with necklaces,
10. Gold pendants and silver necklaces have already been prepared for you.
11. As the bridegroom reclines (at the table), so the nard releases its fragrance.
12. Like a sachet of myrrh resting on my breasts is my beloved.
13. My beloved is like a cluster of grapes in the vineyards of En Gedi.
14. Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved; your eyes are like doves!
15. Oh, you are beautiful and delightful (sweet), my beloved! Our bed is lush greenery (fresh);
16. our dwelling is covered with cedars,
17. and our ceiling is made of cypress.

Chapter 2

1. I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
2. As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among other young women.
3. My beloved is like an apple tree among the trees of the forest. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4. He brought me into the banquet hall (feast), and his banner over me is love.
5. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.
7. I implore you, my friends, (literally, Daughters of Jerusalem), by the gazelles and the does of the field (gazelles and does; in the Hebrew original, the words “tsevaot” and “ealot” sound similar to the name of the Lord of Hosts); do not awaken love until it so desires.
8. I hear the sound of my beloved! He is leaping across the mountains and bounding over the hills.
9. My beloved is like a gazelle, like a young stag. He stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows and peering through the lattice.
10. My beloved began to speak to me: “Arise, my beloved and beautiful one, come away (let us go away together)”
11. Look, the winter is past; the rains are over and gone;
12. the flowers have appeared on the earth, the season of singing (praise, rejoicing) has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land;
13. the fig trees are ripening, and the vines are in blossom, giving off their fragrance. Arise, my beloved and beautiful one, come away (let us go away together)”
14. My dove, hidden in the clefts of the rock, in the shelter of the cliff, let me see you; let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful.
15. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom, (that is, deliver me from whatever or whoever threatens my youth, beauty, innocence, and purity)
16. My beloved is mine, and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.
17. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, return to me like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains.

Chapter 3

1. At night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but did not find him.
2. I will get up and go around the city. In the streets and squares I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but did not find him.
3. I met the watchmen who patrol the city. Have you seen the one my soul loves?
4. But scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my soul loves. I grasped him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the inner room where she conceived* me. (some interpreters explain that the word conceived may allegorically mean “taught”)
5. I implore you, my friends, (literally, Daughters of Jerusalem), by the gazelles and the does of the field (gazelles and does; in the Hebrew original, the words “tsevaot” and “ealot” sound similar to the name of the Lord of Hosts); do not awaken love until it so desires.
6. Who is this coming up (ascending) from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh, frankincense, and all the aromatic powders of the merchant?
7. Sixty mighty warriors of Israel surround Solomon’s carriage.
8. They are experienced warriors (literally: “they have learned to seize swords in battle”), each with his sword at his side, prepared for danger in the night.
9. King Solomon made a carriage (a closed, portable throne—a palanquin) for himself from the cedars of Lebanon,
10. its supports of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple cloth; its interior was adorned (decorated) with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.
11. Go out and look, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day of his joy.

Chapter 4

1. You are beautiful, my beloved; your eyes are doves, beautiful beneath the veil (a covering for a woman); your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead;
2. your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its mate, and none is barren among them;
3. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks behind your veil are like halves of a pomegranate;
4. your neck is like the tower of David, built for defense; a thousand shields hang on it, all the shields of warriors;
5. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, grazing among the lilies.
6. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
7. You are beautiful, my beloved, and there is no flaw in you.
8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, from the summit of Amana, from the peaks of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountains of leopards.
9. You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance, with a single jewel on your necklace.
10. 10. How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! Your love is better than wine, and the fragrance of your oils (oil) surpasses all spices.
11. Your lips drip honey, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12. You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
13. Your shoots (sprouts), like a garden of pomegranates with excellent fruit, henna (the name of a shrub used for dyeing hair and nails) and nard; (fragrant oil)
14. nard and saffron (a southern plant or powder made from the dried stigmas of this plant, used as a food coloring), calamus and cinnamon, fragrant trees, myrrh and aloe, with all the finest spices;
15. A spring in your garden, a well of living water flowing from Lebanon.
16. Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow upon my garden, that its fragrances may flow (pour out). Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its excellent fruit.

Chapter 5

1. I came into the garden of my sister, my bride; I gathered fragrant myrrh, ate honey from the comb, and drank wine with milk. Eat, my friends, and drink your fill!
2. I sleep, but my heart is awake; my beloved is knocking, saying, “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my undefiled one; my head is covered with dew, my locks with the moisture of the night.”
3. I have taken off my robe; how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I soil them?
4. My beloved reached his hand through the opening, and my heart was stirred (to groan).
5. I arose to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.
6. I opened for my beloved, but he had already gone; he had left. My soul failed me as he spoke. I sought him, but could not find him; I called him, but he did not answer.
7. The watchmen who patrol the city found me; they beat me, wounded me, and took away my veil (a summer wrap for women), the watchmen of the walls (city wall).
8. I charge you (I adjure you), O daughters of Jerusalem (my friends), if you find my beloved, tell him that I am faint with love.
9. How is your beloved better than other beloveds, that you charge us so?
10. My beloved is radiant (of his face) and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand;
11. his head is pure gold; his locks are clusters of palm branches, black as a raven;
12. his eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathing in milk, set in a socket (a setting for precious stones).
13. his cheeks are beds of spices, his lips are lilies dripping with liquid myrrh;
14. his hands are gold rings (a rod on which a door hangs, a ring), set with topaz; his body is ivory overlaid with sapphires;
15. his legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold, like choice cedars of Lebanon;
16. his mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Chapter 6

1. Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful among women? Tell us, and we will help you find him.
2. My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices (flower beds), to pasture his flock in the gardens and gather lilies.
3. My beloved is mine, and my tender one grazes among the lilies.
4. You are beautiful, my beloved, like Tirzah (the name of the ancient capital of the northern kingdom; literally, “she is pleasant”), lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army under banners (a regiment standing with raised banners, ready for battle)
5. Do not look at me; your eyes overwhelm me.
6. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead; your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep coming up from the washing, each one bearing twins, and none is barren among them;
7. your cheeks behind your veil are like halves of a pomegranate;
8. There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and maidens without number,
9. but my dove, my perfect one, is unique; she is her mother’s only child, pure to her who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.
10. Who is this, beautiful as the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army under banners?
11. I went down to the walnut grove to see the green valleys, to see whether the vine had budded and whether the pomegranates had blossomed.
12. Knowing life, placed upon the chariots of nobles.

Chapter 7

1. Come back, Shulammite! (at peace) Come back, that we may look at you. Why should you look at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim (or a victorious dance, the dance of two camps)?
2. How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! The curves of your thighs are like ornaments, the work of a skilled craftsman;
3. your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks spiced wine, your belly is like a heap of wheat surrounded by lilies;
4. your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle;
5. your neck is like a tower of ivory; your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim; your face is like the tower of Lebanon, looking (a tall tower raised high for observation) toward Damascus;
6. your head crowns you like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple; the king is captivated by its flowing locks.
7. How beautiful and pleasant you are, beloved and delightful!
8. You are tall and slender like a palm tree (date palm), and your breasts are like clusters of grapes.
9. I said, “I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its branches.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, and the fragrance of your face like apples;
10. and your mouth like the finest wine. May it flow straight to my beloved, flowing gently over the lips of those who are asleep.
11. I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.
12. Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and spend the night in the villages;
13. let us rise early and go to the vineyards to see whether the vine has blossomed, whether the buds have opened, and whether the pomegranates are in bloom; there I will give myself to you, my beloved.
14. The mandrakes (mandrake apples, whose scent was believed to arouse love) have already released their fragrance by our door; for you I have saved many fruits, both old and new, my beloved!

Chapter 8

1. Oh, how I wish you were my brother, nursed at my mother’s breast. Then, if I met you in the street, I could kiss you openly, and no one would condemn me (in the East, only a brother and sister could exchange kisses in a public place).
2. I would lead you and bring you into my mother’s house. You would teach me, and I would give you spiced (literally, seasoned) wine, the juice of pomegranates.
3. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.
4. I appeal to you, my friends (literally, Daughters of Jerusalem), by the gazelles and the does of the field (gazelles and does; the words “tsevaot” and “eyalot” – in the Hebrew original, they sound similar to the name of the Lord of Hosts); do not awaken love until it pleases.
5. Who is this, rising (ascending) from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you, where your mother gave birth to you.
6. Set me as a seal upon your heart (breast), as a ring upon your hand. For love is as strong as death, and jealousy is as fierce (cruel) as Sheol (Sheol—hell, the grave, the underworld), where the flame burns fiercely.
7. Great waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If someone were to give all his wealth for love, he would not be despised or rejected.
8. We have a younger sister whose breasts have not yet developed. What shall we do for her when she is sought in marriage?
9. If she were a wall, we would build silver fortifications (a fortress, a fortified camp) around her (meaning—we would make her inaccessible to others); if she were a door (gateway), we would board her up with cedar planks (meaning—we would nail boards across the door so that no one could pass through).
10. I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. In his eyes I have found fulfillment (he will be pleased with me).
11. Solomon’s vineyard in Baal-hamon (the populous place) was entrusted to keepers, and it yielded a thousand shekels of silver.
12. But my vineyard is my own. Let Solomon have a thousand, and let him give a hundred to those who guard its fruit.
13. You who dwell in the gardens, your friends listen for your voice. Let me hear it too.
14. Come quickly, my beloved; be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!