Song of Songs 3:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 “Let me rise then and go about the city,[a]
through the streets and squares;
Let me seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him but I did not find him.
3 The watchmen found me,
as they made their rounds in the city:
“Him whom my soul loves—have you seen him?”
4 (A)Hardly had I left them
when I found him whom my soul loves.[b]
I held him and would not let him go
until I had brought him to my mother’s house,
to the chamber of her who conceived me.
Footnotes
- 3:2 The motif of seeking/finding here and elsewhere is used by later Christian and Jewish mystics to speak of the soul’s search for the divine.
- 3:4 Whom my soul loves: the fourfold repetition of this phrase in vv. 1–4 highlights the depth of the woman’s emotion and desire. Mother’s house: cf. 8:2; a place of safety and intimacy, one which implicitly signifies approval of the lovers’ relationship.
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