Study Desk

Listen! My love is approaching. Look! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains,^(g) bounding over the hills.

My love is like a gazelle or a young stag.^(h) Look, he is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

My love calls to me: M Arise,⁽ⁱ⁾ my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

For now the winter is past; the rain has ended and gone away.

The blossoms appear in the countryside. The time of singing^[j] has come, and the turtledove's cooing is heard in our land.^(j)

The fig tree ripens its figs;^(k) the blossoming vines give off their fragrance.^(l) Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

My dove,^(m) in the clefts of the rock,⁽ⁿ⁾ in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face,^[k] let me hear your voice;^(o) for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.^(p)

(W) Catch the foxes for us^(q)— the little foxes that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in bloom.^(r)

W My love is mine and I am his;^(s) he feeds among the lilies.

Before the day breaks^[l] and the shadows flee, turn to me, my love, and be like a gazelle or a young stag^(t) on the divided mountains.^[m](u)

In my bed at night^[a] I sought the one I love;^(a) I sought him, but did not find him.^[b](b)

I will arise now and go about the city, through the streets and the plazas.^(c) I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but did not find him.

The guards who go about the city found me.^(d) I asked them, "Have you seen the one I love?"

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held on to him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother's house^(e)— to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and the wild does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.^[c](f)