Song of Songs 2:8-17

A visit from a very special young man

8 Listen! I hear the man who loves me!

Look! He is coming!

He moves quickly across the mountains.

He runs and he jumps. He comes over the hills.

9 The man who loves me is like a gazelle or like a young male deer.

Look! There he is! He is standing behind our wall.

He is looking carefully through the window.

He is looking into the room.

10 The man who loves me said to me:

‘My beautiful best friend, I love you.

Please get up and come with me.

11 See! The winter is past. The rains have finished.

12 Flowers are appearing in country places.

It is now the season to sing.

Near here, we can hear the lovely sound that the doves are making.

13 The new fruit on the fig trees is growing.

The smell from the flowers on the vines is moving into the air.

My beautiful best friend, I love you.

Please get up and come with me.’

The young man:

14 You are like a dove that is hiding in a rock.

You are like a dove that is hiding in the mountains.

Show your face to me because it is lovely.

Let me hear your voice because it has a beautiful sound.

15 Catch the foxes for us.

Catch the little foxes that destroy the vineyards.

They destroy our vines when the flowers are appearing.

The young woman:

16 The man who loves me is mine.

And I am his.

He eats slowly among the lilies.

17 My best friend that I love,

turn round until the dawn.

Until dawn arrives and the shadows have gone,

be like a gazelle.

Or be like a young male deer on the hills of rock.