The young woman is responding to the young man’s request in verse 13. Bible en français courant, however, thinks the young man is speaking and quoting the words he would love to hear.
Apart from the opening imperative, this verse is made up almost entirely of expressions we have heard repeatedly throughout the Song.
Make haste: the Hebrew imperative used here is generally used of hurrying away from something. Many translations give “flee,” but it is hard to imagine that the young woman is asking her lover to leave her! So here we assume that she is calling him to hurry away from where he is with his friends, to come and join her. New International Version has “Come away….” However, it is possible that the Hebrew verb does not indicate movement as much as speed. Several versions take this approach. New Jerusalem Bible, for example, says “Hurry, my beloved, swift as a gazelle….” We can also say “Quickly, my love….”
My beloved: see comments on 1.13, 14.
Be like a gazelle or a young stag: see comments on 2.9, 17.
Mountains of spices is similar to the expression in 4.6. There the young man promises to go to “the mountain of myrrh” and to “the hill of incense.” We noted that these mountains were probably figurative expressions for the young woman’s breasts. In 2.17 the young woman asks her lover to be like a gazelle and a young stag on “rugged mountains.” Here too we have a plural form mountains. The Hebrew word rendered spices never occurs elsewhere with mountains. However, it is associated with spices as we can see in 4.6, and it is a word that appears continually throughout the Song (4.10, 14; 5.1, 13; 6.2). In all but one instance (5.13) these refer to the young woman, her beauty, and her love. Indeed in many of these contexts there is a strong sexual element. There seems to be no doubt, then, that the young woman is asking her lover to come quickly and join her, so they can enjoy the pleasures of love together. In translating mountains of spices we can follow Revised Standard Version, or Good News Translation “the mountains where spices grow.” Alternatively we may use an adjective to describe the mountains, “spicy mountains” (Jerusalem Bible), or the more poetic “spice-laden mountains” (New International Version).
As many expressions in this verse have occurred elsewhere in the Song, translators are urged to use the same renderings here, so that the repetition can be appreciated for its role in this concluding section.
For translation we can say:
• Hurry, my love; be like the wild deer on the spiced mountain.
New Jerusalem Bible also gives a good model:
• Hurry, my beloved,
Swift as a gazelle or a young stag,
To the hills of spices!
With this call to love the Song ends, finishing on the same note with which it began (1.2)—the honest expression of one young woman’s intense desire for her lover.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .