Listen! My love is approaching.
Look! Here he comes,
leaping over the mountains,(A)
bounding over the hills.
My love is like a gazelle
or a young stag.(B)
See, he is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10 My love calls to me:

Man

Arise,(C) my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.
11 For now the winter is past;
the rain has ended and gone away.
12 The blossoms appear in the countryside.
The time of singing[a] has come,
and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land.(D)
13 The fig tree ripens its figs;(E)
the blossoming vines give off their fragrance.(F)
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.

14 My dove,(G) in the clefts of the rock,(H)
in the crevices of the cliff,
let me see your face,[b]
let me hear your voice;(I)
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.(J)

Woman

15 [c]Catch the foxes for us(K)
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in bloom.(L)

Woman

16 My love is mine and I am his;(M)
he feeds among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks[d]
and the shadows flee,
turn around, my love, and be like a gazelle
or a young stag(N) on the divided mountains.[e](O)

In my bed at night[f]
I sought the one I love;(P)
I sought him, but did not find him.[g](Q)
I will arise now and go about the city,
through the streets and the plazas.(R)
I will seek the one I love.
I sought him, but did not find him.
The guards who go about the city found me.(S)
I asked them, “Have you seen the one I love?”
I had just passed them
when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I brought him to my mother’s house(T)
to the chamber of the one who conceived me.
Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and the wild does of the field,
do not stir up or awaken love
until the appropriate time.[h](U)

Footnotes

  1. 2:12 Or pruning
  2. 2:14 Or form
  3. 2:15 The speaker could be the woman, the man, or both.
  4. 2:17 Lit breathes
  5. 2:17 Or the Bether mountains, or the mountains of spices; Hb obscure
  6. 3:1 Or bed night after night
  7. 3:1 LXX adds I called him, but he did not answer me
  8. 3:5 Lit until it pleases

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