1 I am the rose of Sharon (i.e. I am a mere wild-flower of the plains: a flower found in great profusion: disclaimer her lovers compliment), and a lily of the valleys.
2 As a lily (the shepherd, taking up her word in reply) among thorns (see 2 Kings 14:9), so is my friend among the damsels.
3 As the orange tree among the trees of the wood (i.e. the wild trees), so is my beloved among the sons (the Shulamite speaking). I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and its fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the vineyard-bower, and he overshadowed me with love. (The shade gives protection which it ensures.)
5 Strengthen me with grape-cakes, refresh me with apples: for I am sick with love.
6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.
7 I adjure you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, that you excite not, nor incite my feelings (or affection. see Isa. 42:13. Prov. 10:12), till she please. (fem. to agree with love, = love never used in the abstract, as in 3:10, and 8:4 [a person]. This is an appeal to the court-ladies not to try and incite her affection for Solomon)
D G1 2:8-14. The Shulamite tells the court-ladies about her beloved: how he once came and invited her
to go out with him.
H1 2:15. Hindered by her brothers, she tells how they set her a task in the vineyards.
G2 2:16,17. The Shulamite tells the court-ladies how she waited for he beloved to come again
in the evening.
H2 3:1-3. Hindered by the watchmen, she tells how she went out and sought him.
G3 3:4. The Shulamite tells the court-ladies how she found her beloved again.
H3 Hindered by the court-ladies, she again adjures them not to hinder, as before, 2:7; in 3:5,
and again in 8:4.
8 The sound (e.g. footsteps [Gen. 3:8]) of my beloved! (the Shulamite is speaking) behold, this [very one] comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart: behold, there he was standing behind our wall, he looks through the windows, he glanced through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke, and said to me, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; (The 1st or early rains come about the end of October or beginning of November; and the wet season, i.e. the last or later rains, in March or beginning of April)
12 The flowers appear in the field; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice (i.e. cooing) of the turtle-dove (a migratory bird [Jer. 8:7) is heard in our land;
13 The fig tree ripens her green figs, and the vines with blossoms they give a good smell. Arise, my friend (the shepherd speaking to the Shulamite), my fair one, and come away.
14 O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the cliff, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is comely."
15 Catch for us the foxes (the Shulamite here quotes the words of her brothers), the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vineyards are in bloom.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he who feeds among the lilies.
17 When the day cools, and the shadows flee away, return, my beloved, and be you like a gazelle or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether (= separation. See 8:14).