Study Desk

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

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

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

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

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

The fig tree forms its early fruit;^(q) the blossoming^(r) vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."

He

My dove^(s) 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.^(t)

Catch for us the foxes,^(u) the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,^(v) our vineyards that are in bloom.^(w)

She

My beloved is mine and I am his;^(x) he browses among the lilies.^(y)

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee,^(z) turn, my beloved,^(aa) and be like a gazelle or like a young stag^(ab) on the rugged hills.^[d](ac)

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

I 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.

The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city.^(b) "Have you seen the one my heart loves?"

Scarcely 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,^(c) to the room of the one who conceived me.^(d)

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