These “daughters” are the “virgins” mentioned in 1:3 or “the young women” in 2:2.46 They might be viewed as “bridesmaids,”47 but they certainly should be understood as young Israelite women (of Jerusalem—Israel’s city girls and “local lasses”).48 It addresses women of marriageable age,49 whose bodies are ripe for sexual love (ages ten to fifteen),50 who desire marital intimacy but are still unmarried.51 These girls are admonished to wait for sexual intimacy. Their bodies are saying “yes.” Their