Read & explore together
The Bride’s Admiration
Song of Solomon 2:1–17 is a poem of mutual admiration and desire. Its images of flowers, fruit, animals, seasons and vineyards help the speakers express love carefully, beautifully and with strong feeling.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
Within this passage, the voices alternate between lovers and include an address to the daughters of Jerusalem. The poem moves from comparison and delight, to a warning not to awaken love too soon, then to an invitation to come away in springtime, ending with belonging and longing.
Song of Solomon 2:1–17Main takeaway
This poem presents love as precious, joyful and powerful, and it speaks of that love with both delight and restraint.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A flower among thornsThe opening comparisons are poetic, not literal description. One speaker says, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys”, and the lover answers, “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”
Explanation
The opening comparisons are poetic, not literal description. One speaker says, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys”, and the lover answers, “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The images highlight beauty, distinctiveness and affection through nature language.
02Love enjoyed and love restrainedThe beloved describes delight, protection and welcome with the shadow of an apple tree, sweet fruit, a banquet hall and a banner of love.
Explanation
The beloved describes delight, protection and welcome with the shadow of an apple tree, sweet fruit, a banquet hall and a banner of love. The language then becomes physically close. Yet the passage also adds a careful warning: do not stir up or awaken love until it desires.
03The beloved arrives and callsThe poem shifts to eager expectation. The beloved is compared to a roe or young deer, moving swiftly over mountains and hills.
Explanation
The poem shifts to eager expectation. The beloved is compared to a roe or young deer, moving swiftly over mountains and hills. He calls, “Rise up” and “come away”, and his invitation is framed by signs of changing season: winter is gone, flowers appear, birds are heard, figs ripen and vines blossom.
04Tender speech, small threats and mutual belongingThe lover calls the beloved “my dove” and asks to see her face and hear her voice. Then comes a striking image: little foxes can plunder blossoming vineyards, suggesting that something small can damage what is flourishing.
Explanation
The lover calls the beloved “my dove” and asks to see her face and hear her voice. Then comes a striking image: little foxes can plunder blossoming vineyards, suggesting that something small can damage what is flourishing. The passage closes with mutual belonging and continued longing.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How do the flower images in verses 1–2 shape the way the lovers speak about one another?
Notice that the poem uses comparison language such as “rose”, “lily” and “among thorns” to express value and distinction.
02What joys of love are named in verses 3–6, and what caution is added in verse 7?
List the images of delight and closeness first, then compare them with the command not to awaken love before its proper time.
03Why might the poem mention little foxes in blossoming vineyards before speaking of belonging and longing?
Stay with the poem’s own wording and consider how a small problem could threaten something beautiful and growing.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Song of Solomon 2:1–17
1I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Lover
2As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. Beloved
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, his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love.
5Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.
6His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me.
7I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
8The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.
9My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.
10My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
11For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone.
12The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” Lover
14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
15Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. Beloved
16My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.
17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.