Song of Solomon 2

2I am only a wild flower in Sharon,

a lily in a mountain valley.

²Like a lily among thorns

is my darling among women.

³Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is my dearest compared with other men.

I love to sit in its shadow,

and its fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to his banqueting hall

and raised the banner of love over me.

⁵Restore my strength with raisins

and refresh me with apples!

I am weak from passion.

⁶His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand caresses me.

⁷Promise me, women of Jerusalem;

swear by the swift deer and the gazelles

that you will not interrupt our love.

The Second Song

⁸I hear my lover’s voice.

He comes running over the mountains,

racing across the hills to me.

⁹My lover is

like a gazelle, like a young stag.

There he stands beside the wall.

He looks in through the window

and glances through the lattice.

¹⁰My lover speaks to me.

The Man

Come then, my love;

my darling, come with me.

¹¹The winter is over; the rains have stopped;

¹²in the countryside the flowers are in bloom.

This is the time for singing;

the song of doves is heard in the fields.

¹³Figs are beginning to ripen;

the air is fragrant with blossoming vines.

Come then, my love;

my darling, come with me.

¹⁴You are like a dove that hides

in the crevice of a rock.

Let me see your lovely face

and hear your enchanting voice.

¹⁵Catch the foxes, the little foxes,

before they ruin our vineyard in bloom.

¹⁶My lover is mine, and I am his.

He feeds his flock among the lilies

¹⁷until the morning breezes blow

and the darkness disappears.

Return, my darling, like a gazelle,

like a stag on the mountains of Bether.^d