Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 3:1
On my bed at night I sought the one I love; I sought him, but did not find him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the absent beloved while lying on a bed at night, initiating a search that the following verse extends into the city streets. The words — בִּקַּשְׁתִּי (bi.kash.ti) translates literally as "I sought," and שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי (she.'a.ha.Vah naf.Sh/i) means "whom my soul loves." The thread — The pattern of seeking and not finding reappears in Song of Solomon 5:6 after the beloved departs, while Song of Solomon 1:7 asks where the beloved pastures and rests his sheep, and 1 Peter 1:8 contrasts physical absence with active love and belief. Why it lands — The text records a direct, unfulfilled search for a loved one, requiring the reader to face the reality of longing without assuming immediate resolution.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
- Song of Solomon 1:7 Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?
- Song of Solomon 5:6 I opened for my beloved, but he had turned and gone. My heart sank at his departure. I sought him but did not find him. I called, but he did not answer.
- Isaiah 26:9 My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
- Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Psalms 22:2 I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
- Psalms 130:1 A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Song of Solomon 5:8 O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.
- Psalms 63:6 When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.
- Job 23:8 If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.