---
title: "Song of Songs 3 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/song-of-songs/3/
description: "The spouse seeks Christ. The glory of his humanity. Song of Songs 3 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Song of Songs 3

Song of Songs 3 is chapter 3 of 8 in the Song of Songs. Here are all 11 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The spouse seeks Christ. The glory of his humanity.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Song of Songs 3 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Bride: On my bed, throughout the night, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him.
2. I will rise up, and I will circle through the city. Through the side streets and thoroughfares, I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him.
3. The watchers who guard the city found me: “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4. When I had passed by them a little, I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not release him, until I would bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who bore me.
5. Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the does and the stags of the open field, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills.
6. Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends through the desert, like a staff of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh, and frankincense, and every powder of the perfumer?
7. Chorus to Bride: Lo, sixty strong ones, out of all the strongest in Israel, stand watch at the bed of Solomon,
8. all holding swords and well-trained in warfare, each one’s weapon upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.
9. Bride to Chorus: King Solomon made himself a portable throne from the wood of Lebanon.
10. He made its columns of silver, the reclining place of gold, the ascent of purple; the middle he covered well, out of charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.
11. O daughters of Zion, go forth and see king Solomon with the diadem with which his mother crowned him, on the day of his espousal, on the day of the rejoicing of his heart.

## Song of Songs 3 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. In lectulo meo, per noctes, quæsivi quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
2. Surgam, et circuibo civitatem: per vicos et plateas quæram quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
3. Invenerunt me vigiles qui custodiunt civitatem: Num quem diligit anima mea vidistis?
4. Paululum cum pertransissem eos, inveni quem diligit anima mea: tenui eum, nec dimittam, donec introducam illum in domum matris meæ, et in cubiculum genetricis meæ.
5. Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, per capreas cervosque camporum, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit.
6. Quæ est ista quæ ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii?
7. En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt ex fortissimis Israël,
8. omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi: uniuscujusque ensis super femur suum propter timores nocturnos.
9. Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon de lignis Libani;
10. columnas ejus fecit argenteas, reclinatorium aureum, ascensum purpureum; media caritate constravit, propter filias Jerusalem.
11. Egredimini et videte, filiæ Sion, regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius, et in die lætitiæ cordis ejus.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: The Gentiles as in the dark, and seeking in heathen delusion what they could not find, the true God, until Christ revealed his doctrine to them by his watchmen, (ver. 3,) that is, by the apostles, and teachers by whom they were converted to the true faith; and holding that faith firmly, the spouse (the Catholic Church) declares, ver. 4, That she will not let him go, till she bring him into her mother's house, etc., that is, till at last, the Jews also shall find him.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Thu, Jul 22, 2027 (computed): St. Mary Magdalene — First Reading, Song of Songs 3:1-4b
- Sat, Jul 22, 2028 (computed): St. Mary Magdalene — First Reading, Song of Songs 3:1-4b

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

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