Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 3:5
O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the daughters of Jerusalem immediately after finding the beloved and bringing him to the mother’s house. This interjection occurs between the narrator’s personal discovery and the appearance of a procession rising from the wilderness.
The words — The verb הִשְׁבַּ֨עְתִּי (hish.Ba'.ti) translates literally as "I adjure," establishing a solemn charge. The phrase בִּצְבָאוֹת אֹו בְאַיְלוֹת הַשָׇּדֶה invokes the gazelles or does of the field as witnesses to this command.
The thread — This exact adjuration appears in Song of Solomon 2:7 and Song of Solomon 8:4 as a recurring refrain. It also echoes the structural pattern of covenantal warnings found in Micah 4:8.
Why it lands — The text commands restraint in emotional or romantic commitment until the proper moment arrives. It requires the reader to recognize the boundary between spontaneous desire and deliberate timing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 2:7 O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.
- Song of Solomon 8:4 O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.
- Micah 4:8 And you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion—the former dominion will be restored to you; sovereignty will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem.”