Song of Solomon 2:8–17

⁸“Listen! I hear my love!

Look! Here he comes!

He’s leaping across the mountains.

He’s coming over the hills.

⁹The one who loves me is like an antelope or a young deer.

Look! There he stands behind our wall.

He’s gazing through the window.

He’s peering through the screen.

¹⁰He said to me, ‘Rise up, my love.

Come with me, my beautiful one.

¹¹Look! The winter is past.

The rains are over and gone.

¹²Flowers are appearing on the earth.

The season for singing has come.

The cooing of doves

is heard in our land.

¹³The fig trees are producing their early fruit.

The flowers on the vines are giving off their sweet smell.

Rise up and come, my love.

Come with me, my beautiful one.’ ”

The king says,

¹⁴“You are like a dove in an opening in the rocks.

You are like a dove in a hiding place on a mountainside.

Show me your face.

Let me hear your voice.

Your voice is so sweet.

Your face is so lovely.

¹⁵Catch the foxes for us.

Catch the little foxes.

They destroy our vineyards.

The vineyards are in bloom.”

The woman says,

¹⁶“My love belongs to me, and I belong to him.

Like an antelope, he eats among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the day begins

and the shadows fade away,

turn to me, my love.

Be like an antelope

or like a young deer

on the rocky hills.