2 So I will rise then, and go about the city in the streets, and in the rechovot (open squares, places); I will seek him whom my nefesh loveth; I sought him, but found him not.
3 The shomrim (watchmen) that go about the city found me; to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my nefesh loveth?
4 Scarcely had I passed from them, when I found him whom my nefesh loveth; I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into the bais immi (the house of my mother), and into the cheder of her that conceived me.
5 I charge you, O ye banot Yerushalayim, by the gazelles, and by the deer of the sadeh, that ye arouse nor awake HaAhavah till it pleases [i.e., until its own time, see 2:7; 8:4].
6 Who is this that cometh out of the midbar like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the fragrant powders of the rokhel (merchant)?
7 Hinei, his conveyance [see palanquin, 3:9], which is Sh'lomo's; threescore gibborim (valiant men) are around it, of the Gibborei Yisroel.
8 They all hold swords, being expert in michamah (war); every man hath his cherev (sword) at his side against the pachad (terror, dread) of the nights.