[3] This chapter contains a dialogue in the open air and several female poems with the main imagery of flora and fauna.

[5] Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, assigned as 4Q107 (4QCantb); 30 BCE-30 CE; extant verses 9–17).

Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;

[36] This section starts a poetic exposition of lovers who are joined and separated (Song 2:8–3:5).

[37] Verses 8–17 form a unity of a poem of the spring by the woman,[38] beginning with 'the voice of my beloved' (qōl dōḏî; or 'the sound of his [approach]'), which signals his presence before he even speaks.

[41] St. Ambrose comments by way of a paraphrase,Let us see him leaping; he leaped out of heaven into the virgin, out of the womb into the manger, out of the manger into Jordan, out of Jordan to the cross, from the cross into the tomb, out of the grave into heaven.