2:10–13

The poem in 2:10–13 begins and ends with the man repeating an invitation to the woman. This identical beginning and ending indicates this section as a poem within the larger poem of the Song. It is one of the most beautiful poems in the Old Testament about the beauty of nature. Look for special ways to translate this portion in a beautiful way in your language.

2:10a

My beloved calls to me: In this verse the woman began to tell what her beloved said to her. In the Hebrew, two speech verbs, speaks and says. are used to introduce his words. It is common in Hebrew to use two verbs to introduce quoted speech. In some languages it may be more natural to use only one verb, as in the Berean Standard Bible.

This quote of what the man said extends from 2:10b–14f. Some ways to indicate the quote are:

• Begin the quote with a quote formula. For example:

My lover spoke to me, saying (NET Bible)
-or-
My beloved says to me
-or-
My love calls to me

• End the quote in 2:14 with a quote formula. For example:

….” That is what my beloved said.

• Indicate the change of speaker with a heading. For example:

The man speaks to the woman

Then in 2:15, indicate that the woman spoke again.

2:10b–14 The woman quoted what the man said to her

2:10b

Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one: Here the man used the phrases my darling and my beautiful one as names for the woman, as he invited her to come with him. The names showed that he loved her and thought that she was beautiful. The Berean Standard Bible puts these names in a different place in the sentence. In some languages it is more natural to put these names in the center. For example:

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away (Revised Standard Version)

Arise…Come away with me: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Arise often adds emphasis to the next action. It implies that the action is important and should be started quickly. The man wanted the woman to leave whatever she was doing and come with him. The verb Arise probably does not imply here that the woman was sitting or lying down.

In some languages it is more natural to use a different way to add emphasis to the action Come away. For example:

Come then…come with me. (Good News Translation)
-or-
Hurry…and come away with me!
-or-
Come away with me, my beautiful darling—please, let’s hurry!

Use a natural way in your language to persuade someone.

my darling: The phrase my darling also occurred in 1:9a–b. See the note there for advice on how to translate it.

Come away with me: The man used the phrase Come away with me to invite the woman to come out with him. She was probably inside her house, and he called her to come out to enjoy the beginning of springtime with him.

Some other ways to translate the phrase Come away with me are:

and come with me. (God’s Word)
-or-
come out ⌊and go⌋ with me!

my beautiful one: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as beautiful means “fair.” For example:

my fair one (Revised Standard Version)

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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