3Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shadow; and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4He escorts me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. 5Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love. 6His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. 7I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer of the field, that you not awaken my love, until the time is right.

8I hear my beloved! Look, here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9My beloved is like a roe or a young stag; look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. 10My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come with me. 11For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, with the sound of the turtle-dove in our land. 13The fig tree puts forth its green figs, and the grape vines give their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 14My dove hides in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face lovely.

15Take the foxes for us, the little foxes that ruin the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.

16My beloved is mine, and I am his; he browses among the lilies. 17Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be you like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.