8  The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping ^yover the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

9  My beloved is like ^za gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

10  My beloved speaks and says to me:

^a“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11  for behold, the winter is past;

^bthe rain is over and gone.

12  ^cThe flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing¹ has come,

and the voice of ^dthe turtledove

is heard in our land.

13  ^eThe fig tree ripens its figs,

and ^fthe vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

^gArise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

14  O my ^hdove, in the ⁱclefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me ^jhear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is ^klovely.

15  Catch ^lthe foxes² for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

^ffor our vineyards are in blossom.”

16  ^mMy beloved is mine, and I am his;

he ⁿgrazes³ among the lilies.

17  Until ^othe day breathes

and ^pthe shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like ^qa gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.⁴

1  On my bed ^rby night

I sought ^shim whom my soul loves;

^tI sought him, but found him not.

2  I will rise now and go about the city,

in ^uthe streets and in the squares;

I will seek ^shim whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

3  ^vThe watchmen found me

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

4  Scarcely had I passed them

when I found ^shim whom my soul loves.

I ^wheld him, and would not let him go

until I had ^xbrought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of ^yher who conceived me.

5  ^zI adjure you, ^aO daughters of Jerusalem,

^bby the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

6  ^cWhat is that coming up from the wilderness

like ^dcolumns of smoke,

perfumed with ^emyrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

7  Behold, it is the litter⁵ of Solomon!

Around it are ^fsixty ^gmighty men,

some of the mighty men of Israel,

8  all of them wearing swords

and expert in war,

each with his ^hsword at his thigh,

against ⁱterror by night.

9  King Solomon made himself a carriage⁶

from the wood of Lebanon.

10  He made its posts of silver,

its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with love

by ^jthe daughters of Jerusalem.

11  Go out, O ^kdaughters of Zion,

and look upon King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

on ^lthe day of his wedding,

on the day of the gladness of his heart.