Song of Solomon 3:3-5

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

³ The sentinels found me,
    as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them,
    when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
    until I brought him into my mother’s house,
    and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!