8  The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping over the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

9  My beloved is ^blike a 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:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11  for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

12  The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing¹ has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

13  The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in ^cblossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

14  O ^dmy dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

^elet me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

15  Catch the foxes² for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

for our vineyards are in blossom.”

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

he ^ggrazes³ among the lilies.

17  ^hUntil the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.⁴

1  On my bed by night

I sought him ⁱwhom my soul loves;

I ^jsought him, but found him not.

2  I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

3  ^kThe 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 him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go

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

and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

5  ^mI adjure you, O ⁿdaughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.