1. In the nights on my bed I sought him whom my nefesh loveth; I sought him, but I found him not.
2. So I will rise then, and go about the city in the streets, and in the rechovot (open squares, places); I will seek him whom my nefesh loveth; I sought him, but found him not.
3. The shomrim (watchmen) that go about the city found me; to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my nefesh loveth?
4. Scarcely had I passed from them, when I found him whom my nefesh loveth; I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into the bais immi (the house of my mother), and into the cheder of her that conceived me.
5. I charge you, O ye banot Yerushalayim, by the gazelles, and by the deer of the sadeh, that ye arouse nor awake HaAhavah till it pleases [i.e., until its own time, see 2:7; 8:4].
6. Who is this that cometh out of the midbar like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the fragrant powders of the rokhel (merchant)?
7. Hinei, his conveyance [see palanquin, 3:9], which is Sh'lomo's; threescore gibborim (valiant men) are around it, of the Gibborei Yisroel.
8. They all hold swords, being expert in michamah (war); every man hath his cherev (sword) at his side against the pachad (terror, dread) of the nights.
9. HaMelech Sh'lomo made himself an appiryon (palanquin, mobile throne carried on a litter on the shoulders of men) of the wood of the Levanon.