Chapter 2

  I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys.  

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  As the lily among thorns, so [is] my love among the daughters.  

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  As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so [is] my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit [was] sweet to my taste.  

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  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love.  

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  Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I [am] sick of love.  

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  His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.  

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  I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.  

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  The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.  

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  My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.  

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  My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  

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  For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone;  

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  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;  

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  The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [with] the tender grape give a [good] smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.  

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  O my dove, [that art] in the clefts of the rock, in the secret [places] of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance [is] comely.  

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  Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.  

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  My beloved [is] mine, and I [am] his: he feedeth among the lilies.  

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  Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.  

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