THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, SONG OF SONGS

2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a

For love is as strong as death.

I hear my Beloved. See how he comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.

See where he stands behind our wall.
He looks in at the window,
he peers through the lattice.

My Beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me,
“Come then, my love,
my lovely, come.

“My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.”

My Beloved is mine and I am his.
He said to me:
‘Set me like a seal on your heart,
For love is strong as Death,
jealousy relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fir,
a flame of the Lord himself.’

Love no flood can quench,
no torrents down.