8:14 The woman spoke to the man
English versions which indicate who speaks here agree that the woman is the one who speaks. When the man said that he wanted to hear her voice, she responded that she longed for him to come to her quickly. The language and theme are much like the second part of 2:17 (“turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains”).
8:14a
Come away: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Come away has several meanings. Here it means “hasten.” The woman urged the man to hurry away from where he was and go to the mountain of spices (8:14c). She probably wanted to be with him there.
Some other ways to translate this verb are:
Hurry (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
Come quickly ⌊to me⌋
my beloved: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as my beloved occurs 19 times in the Song. It first occurs in 1:13a–b. There the woman used it to refer to the man, and here she used it to address him directly. It is good to translate this word in the same way in all the verses where she used it to refer to him.
8:14b
and be like a gazelle or a young stag: This clause is a simile that compares the man to a gazelle or young stag. “Gazelles” and “stags” (male deer) are beautiful animals that run fast and are sure-footed in the mountains. The woman implied that she wanted the man to come just as quickly (and joyfully) to their meeting place. In some languages it is helpful to make the meaning more explicit. For example:
Move like a swift gazelle or a young deer (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
Run like a gazelle or a young stag (God’s Word)
See the notes on 2:9a–b and 2:17c–d for more discussion.
8:14c
on the mountains of spices: The phrase mountains of spices has both a literal and a figurative meaning. Literally, it refers to a gazelle or stag bounding across mountains where spices grow. As a metaphor, it refers to the woman herself as the mountains of spices. That implies that the woman was as delightful and beautiful as the mountains where many delightful spices grow.
See the note on 4:6c–d for a discussion of a closely related statement: I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
on the mountains of precious spice plants.
-or-
on the mountains where spices grow. (New Century Version)
spices: The author referred to spices throughout the Song (for example, 4:6; 4:10; 4:14; 5:1; 6:2). Most of these verses refer to the woman. They imply that she was beautiful and exciting, especially in the ways that she showed her love to the man. Translate the word as you translated it in previous verses.
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