Song of Songs 2 - New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Chapter 2

¹ W I am a flower of Sharon,^[a]
a lily of the valleys.
² M Like a lily among thorns,
so is my friend among women.
³ W Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
so is my lover among men.
In his shadow^[b] I delight to sit,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
^{4 (A)}He brought me to the banquet hall^[c]
and his glance at me signaled love.
^{5 (B)}Strengthen me with raisin cakes,^[d]
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
^{6 (C)}His left hand is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
^{7 (D)}I adjure you, Daughters of Jerusalem,^[e]
by the gazelles and the does of the field,
Do not awaken, or stir up love
until it is ready.

Her Lover’s Visit Remembered

⁸ W The sound of my lover! here he comes^[f]
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
⁹ My lover is like a gazelle^[g]
or a young stag.
See! He is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
¹⁰ My lover speaks and says to me,
M “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,
and come!
¹¹ For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
¹² The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land.
¹³ The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my friend, my beautiful one,
and come!
¹⁴ My dove in the clefts of the rock,^[h]
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.”
¹⁵ W Catch us the foxes,^[i] the little foxes
that damage the vineyards; for our vineyards are in bloom!
^{16 (E)}My lover belongs to me and I to him;
he feeds among the lilies.
^{17 (F)}Until the day grows cool^[j] and the shadows flee,
roam, my lover,
Like a gazelle or a young stag
upon the rugged mountains.

Footnotes

1. 2:1 Flower of Sharon: probably the narcissus, which grows in the fertile Plain of Sharon lying between Mount Carmel and Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast. Lily: the lotus plant.
2. 2:3 Shadow: suggestive of protection (cf. Jgs 9:15; Ez 17:23; Ps 17:8; 121:5) and, here, of the woman’s joy in the presence of her lover.
3. 2:4–6 The banquet hall: the sweet things of the table, the embrace of the woman and man, express the richness of their affection and the intimacy of their love.
4. 2:5 Raisin cakes: perhaps pastries used in the worship of the fertility goddess (cf. Hos 3:1; Jer 7:18; 44:19). Apples: this is the common translation of a fruit that cannot be identified (cf. 2:3; 8:5); it appears frequently in Sumerian love poetry associated with the worship of the goddess Inanna. Sick: love-sickness is a popular motif in ancient love poetry.
5. 2:7 Cf. 3:5; 5:8; 8:4. By the gazelles and the does: perhaps a mitigated invocation of the divinity based on the assonance in Hebrew of the names of these animals with terms for God.
6. 2:8–13 In this sudden change of scene, the woman describes a rendezvous and pictures her lover hastening toward her dwelling until his voice is heard calling her to him.
7. 2:9 Gazelle: a frequent motif in ancient poems from Mesopotamia.
8. 2:14 The woman is addressed as though she were a dove in a mountain cleft out of sight and reach.
9. 2:15 A snatch of song in answer to the request of 2:14; cf. 8:13–14. Foxes: they threaten to disturb the security of vineyards. The vineyards are women sought after by young lovers, i.e., foxes.
10. 2:17 Grows cool: in the evening when the sun is going down. Cf. Gn 3:8. Rugged: Hebrew obscure; some interpret it as a geographical name; others, in the sense of spices (cf. 8:14); still others, of sacrifice (Gn 15:10); the image probably refers here to the woman herself.

Cross references

1. 2:4 : Sg 1:4.
2. 2:5 : Sg 5:8.
3. 2:6 : Sg 8:3.
4. 2:7 : Sg 3:5; 8:4.
5. 2:16 : Sg 6:3; 7:10.
6. 2:17 : Sg 4:6; 8:14.