---
title: "Song of Songs 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/song-of-songs/1/
description: "The spouse aspires to an union with Christ, their mutual love for one… Song of Songs 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Song of Songs 1

Song of Songs 1 is chapter 1 of 8 in the Song of Songs. Here are all 16 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The spouse aspires to an union with Christ, their mutual love for one another.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Song of Songs 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Bride: May he kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.. Groom to Bride: So much better than wine are your breasts,
2. fragranced with the finest perfumes. Bride to Groom: Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you.
3. Draw me forward. Chorus to Bride: We will run after you in the odor of your perfumes. Bride to Chorus: The king has led me into his storerooms. Chorus to Bride: We will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine. Groom to Bride: The righteous love you.
4. Bride to Chorus: O daughters of Jerusalem: I am black, but shapely, like the tabernacles of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon.
5. Do not be concerned that I am dark, for the sun has changed my color. The sons of my mother have fought against me. They have made me the keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept.
6. Bride to Groom: Reveal to me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you recline at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions.
7. Groom to Bride: If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, then go out and follow after the steps of the flocks, and pasture your young goats beside the tabernacles of the shepherds.
8. O my love, I have compared you to my company of horsemen against the chariots of Pharaoh.
9. Your cheeks are beautiful, like those of a turtledove. Your neck is like a bejeweled collar.
10. Chorus to Bride: We will fashion for you chains of gold, accented with reddened silver.
11. Bride to Chorus: While the king was taking his rest, my aromatic ointment sent forth its odor.
12. My beloved is a bundle of myrrh to me. He shall abide between my breasts.
13. My beloved is a cluster of Cyprus grapes to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.
14. Groom to Bride: Behold, you are beautiful, O my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are those of a dove.
15. Bride to Groom: Behold, you are handsome, O my beloved, and graceful. Our bed is flourishing.
16. Groom to Bride: The timbers of our houses are of cedar; our ceilings are of cypress.

## Song of Songs 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Osculetur me osculo oris sui; quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino,
2. fragrantia unguentis optimis. Oleum effusum nomen tuum; ideo adolescentulæ dilexerunt te.
3. Trahe me, post te curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum. Introduxit me rex in cellaria sua; exsultabimus et lætabimur in te, memores uberum tuorum super vinum. Recti diligunt te.
4. Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiæ Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula Cedar, sicut pelles Salomonis.
5. Nolite me considerare quod fusca sim, quia decoloravit me sol. Filii matris meæ pugnaverunt contra me; posuerunt me custodem in vineis: vineam meam non custodivi.
6. Indica mihi, quem diligit anima mea, ubi pascas, ubi cubes in meridie, ne vagari incipiam post greges sodalium tuorum.
7. Si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, egredere, et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce hædos tuos juxta tabernacula pastorum.
8. Equitatui meo in curribus Pharaonis assimilavi te, amica mea.
9. Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ sicut turturis; collum tuum sicut monilia.
10. Murenulas aureas faciemus tibi, vermiculatas argento.
11. Dum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum.
12. Fasciculus myrrhæ dilectus meus mihi; inter ubera mea commorabitur.
13. Botrus cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi.
14. Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea! ecce tu pulchra es! Oculi tui columbarum.
15. Ecce tu pulcher es, dilecte mi, et decorus! Lectulus noster floridus.
16. Tigna domorum nostrarum cedrina, laquearia nostra cypressina.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2709: Contemplative Prayer ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: The church, the spouse of Christ, prays that he may love and have peace with her, which the spouse prefers to every thing delicious: and therefore expresses (ver. 2) that young maidens, that is the souls of the faithful, have loved thee.
- Verse 3: “Draw me” … That is, with thy grace: otherwise I should not be able to come to thee. This metaphor shews that we cannot of ourselves come to Christ our Lord, unless he draws us by his grace, which is laid up in his storerooms: that is, in the mysteries of Faith, which God in his goodness and love for mankind hath revealed, first by his servant Moses in the Old Law in figure only, and afterwards in reality by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
- Verse 4: That is, the church of Christ founded in humility appearing outwardly afflicted, and as it were black and contemptible; but inwardly, that is, in its doctrine and morality, fair and beautiful.
- Verse 7: Christ encourages his spouse to follow and watch her flock: and though she know not entirely the power at hand to assist her, he tells her, ver. 8, my company of horsemen, that is, his angels, are always watching and protecting her. And in the following verses he reminds her of the virtues and gifts with which he has endowed her.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).