Song of Songs 2:8-14
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Her Lover’s Visit Remembered
8 W The sound of my lover! here he comes[a]
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
9 My lover is like a gazelle[b]
or a young stag.
See! He is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
10 My lover speaks and says to me,
M “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,
and come!
11 For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,
and come!
14 My dove in the clefts of the rock,[c]
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.”
Footnotes
- 2:8–13 In this sudden change of scene, the woman describes a rendezvous and pictures her lover hastening toward her dwelling until his voice is heard calling her to him.
- 2:9 Gazelle: a frequent motif in ancient poems from Mesopotamia.
- 2:14 The woman is addressed as though she were a dove in a mountain cleft out of sight and reach.
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