So I said to myself, “I will get up and roam the city, searching in all its streets and squares. I will search for the one I love.” So I searched everywhere but did not find him.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
- KJV I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
- BSB I will arise now and go about the city, through the streets and squares. I will seek the one I love. So I sought him but did not find him.
- NKJV “I will rise now,” I said, “And go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love.” I sought him, but I did not find him.
- NASB ‘I must arise now and go around in the city; In the streets and in the public squares I must seek him whom my soul loves.’ I sought him but did not find him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
She rises to search the city streets for her beloved, still not finding him. It shows persistent, determined seeking despite no answer.
Overview
Unable to rest, she goes through the streets and squares seeking the one her soul loves, yet again does not find him. Her persistence reveals the depth of her love. The believer too is called to seek the Lord diligently, even when He seems far, trusting that those who seek will find (Matt. 7:7; Deut. 4:29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Eph 5:14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Rom 13:11Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.
- Isa 64:7There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.
- Prov 8:34Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts.
- Ps 22:1–2For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- Prov 1:20–21Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.
- 1 Cor 15:34Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
- Prov 8:2–3On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands.
- Ps 42:7–9Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Ps 43:2–5For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 77:7–10“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
- John 1:6There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
- Jer 5:1“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.
- Luke 14:21–23“That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’
- Song 5:5I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
- Matt 26:40–41He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The poetry of covenant love between bride and bridegroom pictures, at its highest, the love of Christ for his church — the Bridegroom who gave himself for his bride.
How Song of Songs 3:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.