✧I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys. ✧2As the lily among thorns, so [is] my love among the daughters. ✧3As 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. ✧4He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love. ✧5Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I [am] sick of love. ✧6His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. ✧7I 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. ✧8The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. ✧9My 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. ✧10My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. ✧11For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone; ✧12The 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; ✧13The 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. ✧14O 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. ✧15Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes. ✧16My beloved [is] mine, and I [am] his: he feedeth among the lilies. ✧17Until 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.
King James Version (KJV). King James Version (1769 text). Public domain outside the United Kingdom.