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.
Song of Solomon (also called Song of Songs) is an ancient Hebrew love poem — richly beautiful and sometimes surprising to find in the Bible. The book is an open celebration of romantic love. Here, the woman speaking addresses the "Daughters of Jerusalem" — other women who appear throughout the poem as witnesses to her love story — with a solemn charge. Gazelles and does (female deer) were symbols of grace, beauty, and gentleness in Hebrew poetry. The phrase "do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires" appears three times in the book as a recurring refrain, a repeated caution to let love unfold in its own time rather than being forced or rushed before it's ready.
God, you designed love — and you designed it to unfold in its own time. Give me the patience to let beautiful things develop on your schedule, not mine. Protect me from the cost of forcing what isn't ready. And where I've moved too fast, bring healing. Amen.
There is something almost countercultural about this verse — and it comes from inside a love poem. We live in a world where everything is instant and optimized: swipe right, fast connections, move fast and break things. But the woman in this ancient song pauses the poetry to say: wait. Not because love is dangerous (the whole book is a celebration of it), but because love is precious. Gazelles don't rush. Does don't force. This charge appears three times across the poem — as if the writer knew how hard we find it to wait, how powerful the pull is to grab what feels good right now. This isn't only about romantic love, though it certainly includes it. It's about the whole posture of desire — the way we reach for things before their time, the impatience that mistakes urgency for passion. Have you ever forced something that needed space? A relationship, a commitment, a conversation? The wisdom here is quiet but real: not everything that feels right in the moment is right for the moment. Love — the kind worth having — doesn't demand its own timing. It waits. And the waiting, as it turns out, is part of what makes it beautiful.
What do you think this verse is actually warning against? What does it look like in practice to 'awaken love before it so desires'?
In your own experience, what has rushing into something — a relationship, a commitment, a decision — cost you?
Do you think patience in love and relationships is harder today than it was for previous generations? What forces make waiting feel almost impossible?
How does rushing love or intimacy affect the other person involved — and the long-term quality of the relationship?
Where in your life right now might you be trying to hurry something that genuinely needs more time to develop? What would it look like to give it space this week?
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
Song of Solomon 8:4
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Ephesians 5:22
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
Proverbs 5:19
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon 5:16
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.
Song of Solomon 2:9
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecclesiastes 3:5
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Ephesians 5:33
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Song of Solomon 1:5
(The Bridegroom) "I command that you take an oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the does of the field [which run free], That you do not rouse nor awaken my love Until she pleases."
AMP
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
ESV
'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, That you do not arouse or awaken [my] love Until she pleases.'
NASB
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
NIV
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the does of the field, Do not stir up nor awaken love Until it pleases.
NKJV
Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.
NLT
Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem, by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer: Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe—and you're ready.
MSG