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My lover is like a gazelle[a]
    or a young stag.
See! He is standing behind our wall,
    gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattices.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:9 Gazelle: a frequent motif in ancient poems from Mesopotamia.

17 (A)Until the day grows cool[a] and the shadows flee,
    roam, my lover,
Like a gazelle or a young stag
    upon the rugged mountains.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:17 Grows cool: in the evening when the sun is going down. Cf. Gn 3:8. Rugged: Hebrew obscure; some interpret it as a geographical name; others, in the sense of spices (cf. 8:14); still others, of sacrifice (Gn 15:10); the image probably refers here to the woman herself.

(A)Until the day grows cool
    and the shadows flee,
    I shall go to the mountain of myrrh,
    to the hill of frankincense.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:6 Mountain of myrrh…hill of frankincense: spoken figuratively of the woman; cf. 8:14.