Song of Solomon Love Verses: 16 Lines in the King James Bible, Read in Context

The Song of Solomon is the one book of the Bible that is nothing but a love poem: eight short chapters, 117 verses in English Bibles, in which two lovers speak to each other and God is never plainly named. The love verses people look for come from all over it. "His banner over me was love" is 2:4, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" is 6:3, and "Set me as a seal upon thine heart" is 8:6. Below are the 16 verses most worth knowing, in the King James wording, grouped in the order the poem tells its story. Each has a note on who is speaking and how a modern translation changes it, and at the end there is a table for choosing one for a card, a vow or an engraving. The page belongs with our other Bible verses about love. Every verse was checked against the published KJV and ESV texts and the Hebrew.

Longing: the lines that open the poem

The poem starts mid-feeling, with no story set up and no names given. A woman speaks first, and she is impatient.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

— Song of Solomon 1:2, King James Version (1611)

The verse slips from "him" to "thy" in a single breath, as if she starts by talking about him and ends up talking to him. The ESV keeps that jump ("Let him kiss me… For your love is better than wine"). It also adds the label "She" above the verse, and its footnote says plainly that the translators "have added speaker identifications based on the gender and number of the Hebrew words." The labels are not in the Hebrew text. They are a guess, though a well-grounded one. Wine is the poem's first comparison for love, and it comes back again and again.

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

— Song of Solomon 1:5, King James Version (1611)

This is the first time she describes herself, and she does it to a chorus of city women. The next verse explains why she is dark: "the sun hath looked upon me," because her brothers made her work in the vineyards. The ESV reads "I am very dark, but lovely," and some translations render the Hebrew conjunction as "and," not "but." The difference matters if you quote the line today. Read with "but," she is apologising for her looks. Read with "and," she is simply stating two facts about herself. The poem goes on to treat her as entirely beautiful, so many readers now prefer the second.

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

— Song of Solomon 2:4, King James Version (1611)

A banner marks whose side you are on, so the picture is of being claimed in public. The ESV footnote gives the literal Hebrew for "banqueting house": "the house of wine." The next verse is the line the KJV made famous, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love." It means lovesick, not tired of love. The ESV's "sick with love" removes the ambiguity. If you want a short line for a wedding banner or a reception sign, 2:4 is one of the few verses in the book that already sounds like one.

Spring, and the invitation to come away

The best-known passage in the book is a song inside the song. The woman repeats what her lover said when he came to her window.

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

— Song of Solomon 2:10–12, King James Version (1611)

The "turtle" is a turtledove, not a tortoise. In 1611 the English word could mean either, and the ESV simply prints "turtledove." The "singing of birds" hides a real puzzle. The Hebrew word zamir can mean singing or pruning, and translators split down the middle. The ESV says "the time of singing" with a footnote "Or pruning." The Jewish Publication Society's Tanakh says "The time of pruning has come" with a footnote "Or 'singing.'" Both fit a spring in the hill country: vines are cut back and birds return in the same weeks. For a spring wedding, an anniversary after a hard year, or a note to someone recovering from illness, these three verses are hard to beat.

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My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

— Song of Solomon 2:16, King James Version (1611)

This is the first form of the book's most famous line of mutual belonging. Here she puts herself second: he is mine, and I am his. Four chapters later she says it again in reverse order (6:3, below). "Feedeth" sounds odd now. The ESV has "he grazes among the lilies" and a footnote "Or he pastures his flock," because her lover is pictured as a shepherd.

A warning the poem repeats three times

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

— Song of Solomon 2:7, King James Version (1611)

The same charge comes back word for word at 3:5 and, slightly shortened, at 8:4. A fourth "I charge you" at 5:8 bends it into a plea: "if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love." This is where translation changes the meaning most. The KJV reads "my love" as the man ("till he please"), so the line asks the women not to wake him. The ESV reads it as the feeling itself: "that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases." In that reading it is advice, not a request. Love has its own timing and shouldn't be forced. That is why the verse is often quoted to people who are single or waiting, and why it suits a note to a young couple better than a wedding toast.

Searching in the dark

Twice the woman loses her lover at night and goes looking for him. Both scenes read like dreams, and both are more anxious than most people expect from a "love verse."

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

— Song of Solomon 3:1, King James Version (1611)

"Him whom my soul loveth" (ESV: "him whom my soul loves") is the poem's name for the beloved, used four times in these few lines. It is one of the most beautiful ways to say "the person I love" in English, and it works on its own as an engraving or a dedication. The verse itself, though, describes absence. Keep it for long distance, grief or waiting, not for a wedding.

It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

— Song of Solomon 3:4, King James Version (1611)

The search ends in relief, and the first half of the verse ("I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go") is the half people quote. It suits a reunion, the end of a long-distance stretch, or an anniversary card from her. Most quotations stop before the mention of her mother's house, which in the poem means bringing him home openly, not in secret.

I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

— Song of Solomon 5:2, King James Version (1611)

The second night scene goes wrong. She hesitates, and by the time she opens the door "my beloved had withdrawn himself" (5:6). She goes out to look for him, and the city watchmen beat her. The opening words, "I sleep, but my heart waketh," are often quoted on their own, and they describe a love that stays awake even when the lover is asleep. "My sister" is an endearment here, said in the same breath as "my love, my dove," not a family relationship.

"Thou art all fair": the praise poems

Chapter 4 is mostly the man speaking: a head-to-toe description of the woman's beauty, then an invitation to her garden. The descriptions use comparisons that sound strange now (her hair "as a flock of goats," her teeth "like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing"). The lines below are the ones that still work without explanation.

Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

— Song of Solomon 4:7, King James Version (1611)

This is the verse behind the common search "you are altogether beautiful." That is the ESV wording: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." The NIV has "You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you." It closes the long description that began at 4:1 with "Behold, thou art fair, my love," so it works as a summary after a list of reasons. It is a good choice for a bride's card from the groom, and the ESV labels the speaker as "He."

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

— Song of Solomon 4:9, King James Version (1611)

"Ravished" has darkened since 1611. The ESV's "You have captivated my heart… with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace" is closer to what a modern reader should hear. The idea is lovely and specific: one glance, one detail of her necklace, was enough. If you are writing your own letter, this verse is a model. Name the single small thing that undid you.

A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

— Song of Solomon 4:12, King James Version (1611)

The enclosed garden is the poem's image for the woman herself: private, fruitful and hers to open. At 4:16 she answers, "Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." In the poem the image is erotic and tender, so it suits a private letter better than a public reading.

Lover and friend

His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

— Song of Solomon 5:16, King James Version (1611)

The chorus has just asked her what makes her lover better than any other (5:9), and she answers with her own head-to-toe description of him. This line ends it. "This is my beloved, and this is my friend" may be the best single sentence in the Bible for a husband or a long-married partner, because it claims both kinds of love at once. The ESV footnote notes that "mouth" is literally "palate." The ESV also turns "altogether lovely" into "altogether desirable," which tells you which kind of loveliness she means.

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.

— Song of Solomon 6:3, King James Version (1611)

Compare 2:16. There she said "my beloved is mine, and I am his." Here, after the night of losing him, she puts her belonging to him first. The Hebrew is four words and easy to engrave: אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי, ani l'dodi v'dodi li. It is short enough for the inside of a ring, in Hebrew or in English. The JPS Tanakh's English is almost the same: "I am my beloved's / And my beloved is mine."

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The seal on the heart (8:6–7)

Near the very end, the poem stops describing and makes a claim about love itself. These two verses are the closest the book comes to a vow, and the most natural choice from it for a wedding reading.

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

— Song of Solomon 8:6, King James Version (1611)

A seal was a carved stone worn on a cord or a ring and pressed into clay to sign a document. Asking to be worn as one means asking to be his identity, always on him. In the Hebrew "thine heart" is masculine (libbekha), so it is the woman speaking to the man. "The grave" is Sheol, the underworld, as the ESV footnote says. The last word of the verse is the hardest in the book: shalhevetyah. It ends in -yah, which can be the short form of God's name. The ESV takes it that way, "the very flame of the LORD," which makes this the only possible mention of God in the whole Song. The KJV ("a most vehement flame") and the JPS ("A blazing flame") read it as an intensifier. Which version you quote decides whether your reading is about love or about divine love.

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

— Song of Solomon 8:7, King James Version (1611)

The first half is the famous one, and it is a natural follow-on to the fire of 8:6: no amount of water puts this fire out. The second half is a warning against buying love. Anyone who tries to pay for it, with all the wealth of his house, would be "utterly despised," as the ESV puts it. For a reading, use both verses. For a card or a ring, stop after "neither can the floods drown it."

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Six words the old translations change

Most Song of Solomon quotes online are KJV, which is beautiful but 400 years old. These are the places where the wording you copy changes the meaning, checked against the ESV and JPS footnotes and the Hebrew.

If you are printing a verse, pick one translation and stay with it for the whole reading or card. Mixing a KJV first line with an ESV second line is an easy mistake to make in a wedding program or on wall art, and it makes both lines sound wrong.

How the Song got into the Bible, and how it has been read

A book that never plainly names God, built around a couple's desire, needed defending. The oldest surviving argument is in the Mishnah, the Jewish law code compiled around 200 AD. The rabbis disputed whether the Song "defiles the hands," their technical term for a book being sacred scripture. Rabbi Akiva, the second-century sage, answered: "the whole world is not as worthy as the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the writings are holy but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies" (Mishnah Yadayim 3:5, in Joshua Kulp's translation).

• Jewish reading: the lovers are God and Israel, and the poem tells the story of the Exodus as a love affair. That is why Ashkenazi communities read it in synagogue on the Sabbath during Passover. Sources trace the custom at least to the thirteenth-century book of customs of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg.
• Christian reading: the lovers are Christ and the Church, or Christ and the soul. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Cistercian abbot, preached 86 sermons on the Song between 1135 and his death in 1153, and only got as far as the start of chapter 3.
• Plain reading: many modern readers take the poem first as what it appears to be, love poetry about two human lovers, and treat the religious readings as layers on top of that, not replacements for it.

The title differs between Bibles. "Song of Solomon" is the KJV name. "Song of Songs" is a literal translation of the Hebrew Shir ha-Shirim, a Hebrew way of saying "the greatest song," as "holy of holies" means the holiest place. The first verse says it is "Solomon's," but the Hebrew can also mean "about" or "for" Solomon (the JPS footnote gives "concerning"). So the heading does not have to mean that the king wrote it.

Choosing a verse for a card, a vow or an engraving

The biggest practical question is who is speaking. Give a man's line to a woman and it can read oddly, and some verses are for private letters rather than a church. This table uses the ESV speaker labels and the Hebrew grammar.

Three pieces of advice from reading these in context:

• Change the pronoun honestly or not at all. If a man wants to give 6:3 to his wife, it works as written. If you adapt 8:6 ("Set me as a seal upon your heart"), say "after Song of Solomon 8:6" under it, not just the reference.
• Cite book, chapter, verse and translation. "Song of Solomon 8:7 (KJV)" tells the reader exactly where to find it, and keeps the KJV from being blamed for an ESV word. Our guide to misattributed love quotes explains why that one line of citation matters.
• Pair it with a New Testament reading if the ceremony needs one. Song of Solomon 8:6–7 sits well next to 1 Corinthians 13. One is passion and the other is patience, and together they cover both. For more verses from across the Bible, see 12 Bible verses about love and marriage.

If you would rather write your own words and quote one line, open with the verse and then say in plain English why you chose it. "The Song of Solomon says love is strong as death. I didn't understand that until…" is a stronger card than three verses in a row. Our guide to writing a love letter walks through that structure.

Questions people ask about the Song of Solomon

Is the Song of Solomon a love letter?

Not a letter, but a love poem in dialogue: a woman and a man speak to each other, with short lines from a chorus of "daughters of Jerusalem." Jewish tradition reads it as a love song between God and Israel, and Christian tradition as one between Christ and the Church. Read at face value, it is a sequence of love poems between two people.

Is the Song of Solomon a poem?

Yes, the whole book is Hebrew poetry. Modern translations such as the ESV and NIV print it in verse lines. The KJV prints it as prose paragraphs, which is why the KJV quotes run on.

What does Song of Solomon 4:7 say?

In the KJV: "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." In the ESV: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." The man says it, at the end of his description of the woman that begins at 4:1.

Which Bible verse says "You are beautiful, my darling"?

The NIV's Song of Solomon. 4:1 begins "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!" and 4:7 reads "You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you." The KJV has "my love" in both places.

What does "do not awaken love until it pleases" mean?

It is the refrain at 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4, in the ESV's wording. Read that way, it advises against forcing or hurrying love before its time. The KJV reads the same Hebrew as a request not to wake the sleeping lover ("till he please"). Both readings are possible.

Sources

• Song of Solomon 1–8 in the King James Version, English Standard Version and New International Version, with the ESV footnotes on 1:2, 2:1, 2:4, 2:12, 2:16, 5:16 and 8:6: read at BibleGateway on 31 October 2026. Verse counts and word counts are ours. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®, © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
• Hebrew text of 1:1, 2:12, 6:3 and 8:6 and the JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition) footnotes on 1:1, 2:12 and 8:6: Sefaria, short phrases quoted.
• Mishnah Yadayim 3:5, Rabbi Akiva on the Song as "holy of holies," translation by Joshua Kulp (Mishnah Yomit): Sefaria.
• Reading the Song on Passover and the Maharam of Rothenburg's book of customs: Jewish Review of Books, "Lost in Translation: Song of Songs and Passover", and TorahMates.
• Bernard of Clairvaux's 86 sermons on the Song (1135–1153): manuscript description at e-codices and Catholic Bible Student.