Love in Bloom and the Call to Guard What Is Precious.

Song of Solomon 2 continues the language of love, beauty, and mutual delight, presenting love as tender, joyful, and alive within a setting of springtime renewal. The chapter speaks of nearness, invitation, and affectionate praise, yet it also includes a warning that what is small and easily ignored can damage what is precious. Love here is not treated as reckless passion, but as something to be guarded, nurtured, and rightly timed. The chapter also carries a tone of longing, as love is enjoyed yet not fully possessed without interruption or searching. Its message honors devoted love as beautiful and life-giving, while also calling for watchfulness and restraint.

Song of Solomon 2:1 – 2:17

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