2:8–9 The bride describes the approach of her lover, whom she calls “my beloved” (Song 2:8, 9, 10, 16, 17); he will call her “my love” (vv. 10, 13). Together they possess each other: “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (v. 16). Such intimate language sets the stage for the groom’s invitation to intimacy. She describes him as “a gazelle or a young stag” (v. 9) who is “leaping over the mountains” (parallel to “bounding over the hills”; v. 8). She does so because that animal is swift, handsome, cautious, curious, strong but not violent, and sexually eager in the spring. The animated opening scene ends with this easily excitable animal idle. He is standing and looking, “behind our wall . . . gazing through the windows.” Whatever the “wall” and “windows” symbolize (or do not symbolize—perhaps he has simply arrived home and it is “our wall” because they own a house together), they represent a barrier between the two.14

2:10–15 In these verses the beloved seeks to break down that barrier. Because she is acting inaccessible to him (see the imagery of the dove hiding in “the crannies of the cliff,” followed by his inability to see her face or hear her voice; v. 14), he woos her in three ways. First, he directly invites her to “arise . . . and come away” (vv. 10, 13) with him. Similar language will be repeated in 4:8, which gives further proof that his invitation here is to bed. Second, he extols her attractiveness. Twice he calls her “my beautiful one,” and her face he labels “lovely” (2:14). Third, through his multisensory metaphors of spring’s arrival he argues that the timing is right. He hopes that the feel of the warm dry weather (“The winter is past; the rain is over and gone”; v. 11), the sight of “the flowers” (v. 12), the sound of “turtledoves” (v. 12), and the smell (and taste) of the “figs” (v. 13) will work together to woo her.

Related to this issue of timing is the notoriously difficult (to translate and understand) verse about the foxes (v. 15). The “foxes”—whatever destructive dangers they represent—are not good. As she would know from working the family’s vineyard (1:6), foxes “spoil the vineyards” when the grapes are ripe (“in blossom”). If the “vineyards” symbolize the couple’s bodies, and the protecting of the fruit in order to eat equals sexual intimacy,15 then the sense of his command to “catch the foxes” is this: “Whatever inhibitions you might have toward lovemaking, put them aside, and let’s eat. Our bodies are in blossom. The time is now! Let’s refresh each other with fresh fruit (2:5). Let’s eat our ‘choicest fruits’ (4:16). Yes, let’s ‘eat . . . drink, and be drunk with love!’ (5:1).”

2:16–17 His wooing has worked! She accepts his invitation. The sense is “Yes, take me away!” She summons her beloved to “be like a gazelle” (2:17) by grazing (v. 16) and climbing (v. 17). Notice the progress he has made: in verse 9 she describes him as “gazing,” but now he is “grazing”; in verse 8 he is “leaping over . . . mountains,” but now he is invited to be “on” the mountains. What “He grazes among the lilies” and “cleft mountains” symbolize we will leave to the sanctified imagination (although 4:6; 5:13; 6:2–3; 7:8 provide more than hints to unravel the mystery). While initially reluctant, now she hopes that this love scene will last all night long (“until the day breathes and the shadows flee”; i.e., until the morning).