Song of Songs 2:8-3:8

8Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

10My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.

11See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

12Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

13The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” He

14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

15Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. She

16My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies. 17Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills. Or the hills of Bether

1All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

2I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

3The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

4Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

5Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

6Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

7Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,

8all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.