Song of Songs 2:7-17

Women of Jerusalem, promise me by the gazelles and the deer not to awaken or excite my feelings of love until it is ready. I hear my lover’s voice. Here he comes jumping across the mountains, skipping over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young deer. Look, he stands behind our wall peeking through the windows, looking through the blinds. My lover spoke and said to me, “Get up, my darling; let’s go away, my beautiful one. Look, the winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Blossoms appear through all the land. The time has come to sing; the cooing of doves is heard in our land. There are young figs on the fig trees, and the blossoms on the vines smell sweet. Get up, my darling; let’s go away, my beautiful one.” My beloved is like a dove hiding in the cracks of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff. Show me your face, and let me hear your voice. Your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch the foxes for us— the little foxes that ruin the vineyards while they are in blossom. My lover is mine, and I am his. He feeds among the lilies until the day dawns and the shadows disappear. Turn, my lover. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountain valleys.