Song of Songs 2

¹W I am a flower of Sharon,[#: probably the narcissus, which grows in the fertile Plain of Sharon lying between Mount Carmel and Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast. : the lotus plant.]

a lily of the valleys.

²M Like a lily among thorns,

so is my friend among women.

³W Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,

so is my lover among men.

In his shadow I delight to sit,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to the banquet hall[#Sg 1:4.; #: the sweet things of the table, the embrace of the woman and man, express the richness of their affection and the intimacy of their love.]

and his glance at me signaled love.

⁵Strengthen me with raisin cakes,[#Sg 5:8.; #: perhaps pastries used in the worship of the fertility goddess (cf. Hos 3:1; Jer 7:18; 44:19). : this is the common translation of a fruit that cannot be identified (cf. 2:3; 8:5); it appears frequently in Sumerian love poetry associated with the worship of the goddess Inanna. : love-sickness is a popular motif in ancient love poetry.]

refresh me with apples,

for I am sick with love.

⁶His left hand is under my head[#Sg 8:3.]

and his right arm embraces me.

⁷I adjure you, Daughters of Jerusalem,[#Sg 3:5; 8:4.; #Cf. 3:5; 5:8; 8:4. : perhaps a mitigated invocation of the divinity based on the assonance in Hebrew of the names of these animals with terms for God.]

by the gazelles and the does of the field,

Do not awaken, or stir up love

until it is ready.

⁸W The sound of my lover! here he comes[#In this sudden change of scene, the woman describes a rendezvous and pictures her lover hastening toward her dwelling until his voice is heard calling her to him.]

springing across the mountains,

leaping across the hills.

⁹My lover is like a gazelle[#: a frequent motif in ancient poems from Mesopotamia.]

or a young stag.

See! He is standing behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

peering through the lattices.

¹⁰My lover speaks and says to me,

M “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,

and come!

¹¹For see, the winter is past,

the rains are over and gone.

¹²The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of pruning the vines has come,

and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.

Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,

and come!

¹⁴My dove in the clefts of the rock,[#The woman is addressed as though she were a dove in a mountain cleft out of sight and reach.]

in the secret recesses of the cliff,

Let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

For your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.”

¹⁵W Catch us the foxes, the little foxes[#A snatch of song in answer to the request of 2:14; cf. 8:13–14. : they threaten to disturb the security of vineyards. The vineyards are women sought after by young lovers, i.e., foxes.]

that damage the vineyards; for our vineyards are in bloom!

¹⁶My lover belongs to me and I to him;[#Sg 6:3; 7:10.]

he feeds among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the day grows cool and the shadows flee,[#Sg 4:6; 8:14.; #: in the evening when the sun is going down. Cf. Gn 3:8. : Hebrew obscure; some interpret it as a geographical name; others, in the sense of spices (cf. 8:14); still others, of sacrifice (Gn 15:10); the image probably refers here to the woman herself.]

roam, my lover,

Like a gazelle or a young stag

upon the rugged mountains.