Song of Songs 1:3-12

³And the smell of your ointments is better than all spices: your name is ointment poured forth; therefore do the young maidens love you.

⁴They have drawn you: we will run after you, for the smell of your ointments: the king has brought me into closet: let us rejoice and be glad in you; we will love your breasts more than wine: righteousness loves you.

⁵I am black, but beautiful, you° daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Look not upon me, because I am dark, because the sun has looked unfavourably upon me: my mother's sons strove with me; they made me keeper in the vineyards; I have not kept my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you tend your flock, where you cause them to rest at noon, lest I become as one that is veiled by the flocks of your companions.

⁸If you know not yourself, you fair one among women, go you forth by the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids by the shepherd's tents.

⁹I have likened you, my companion, to my horses in the chariots of Pharao.

¹⁰How are your cheeks beautiful as those of a dove, your neck as chains!

¹¹We will make you figures of gold with studs of silver.

¹²So long as the king was at table, my spikenard gave forth its smell.