4Q106 Canticles^a (Song of Solomon)

Language: Hebrew

Date: 30 B.C - 68 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Contents: Song of Solomon 3:3-5, 7-11; 4:1-7 (omitting 4:8-6:10); 6:11-13; 7:1-6 (Hebrew 6:11-12; 7:1-7)

 

Song of Solomon 3

3 The watchmen who go about the city found me;

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

4 I had scarcely passed from them,

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go,

until I had brought him into my mother’s house,

into the room of her who conceived me.

 

5 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,

by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,

that you not stir up, nor awaken love,

until it so desires.

[..]

7 Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage!

Sixty mighty men are around it,

of the mighty men of Israel.

8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in war.

Every man has his sword on his thigh,

because of fear in the night.

9 King Solomon made himself a carriage

of the wood of Lebanon.

10 He made its pillars of silver,

its bottom of gold, its seat of purple,

the middle of it being paved with love,

from the daughters of Jerusalem.

11 Go out, you daughters of Zion Jerusalem, and see king Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother has crowned him,

in the day of his weddings,

and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

 

Song of Solomon 4

Lover

1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love.

Behold, you are beautiful.

Your eyes are doves behind your veil.

Your hair is as a flock of goats[1],

that descend from Mount Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock,

which have come up from the washing,

where every one of them has twins.

None is bereaved among them.

3 Your lips are like scarlet thread.

Your mouth is lovely.

Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,

whereon a thousand shields hang,

all the shields of the mighty men.

5 Your two breasts are like two fawns

that are twins of a roe,

which feed among the lilies.

 

6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,

I will go to the mountain of myrrh,

And to the hill of frankincense.

 

7 You are all beautiful, my love.

There is no spot in you. [2]

 

Song of Solomon 6

11 I went down into the nut tree grove,

to see the green plants of the valley,

to see whether the vine budded,

and the pomegranates were in flower.

12 Without realizing it,

my desire set me with my royal people’s chariots.

Friends

13 Return, return, Shulammite!

Return, return, that we may gaze at you.

Lover

Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite,

as at the dance of Mahanaim?

 

Song of Solomon 7

1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter!

Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

the work of the hands of a skillful workman.

2 Your body is like a round goblet,

no mixed wine is wanting.

Your waist is like a heap of wheat,

set about with lilies.

3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,

that are twins of a roe.

4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.

Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim.

Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.

5 Your head on you is like Carmel.

The hair of your head like purple.

The king is held captive in its tresses.

6 How beautiful, and how pleasant you are,

love, for delights!