Song of Solomon 2:17: the refrain of belonging to each other
17Chorus to Groom and Bride: Capture for us the little foxes, which are tearing down the vines; for our vineyard has flourished. Bride to Chorus: My beloved is for me, and I am for him. He pastures among the lilies, until the day rises and the shadows decline. Bride to Groom: Return, O my beloved. Be like a doe and like a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.
A refrain rather than a single line, and in this edition it does not stand alone: it sits in the middle of a long verse, between the little foxes and the mountains of Bether. The text names the speaker — the bride.
Short answer
This is a refrain spoken by the bride: belonging that runs in both directions, with no hierarchy between the halves. She says it here starting with him — my beloved is for me, and I am for him — and the same words return later in the book with the order swapped.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
The line is among the most used in wedding vows and invitations, and the use is faithful: it really is about belonging to one another. What you gain from reading the surrounding book is noticing that it is not an isolated declaration but a refrain.
If you go hunting for it and cannot find it, that is the numbering. This edition does not give the sentence a verse of its own: it arrives in the middle of 2:17, after the request to capture the little foxes and before the call to return over the mountains of Bether. The Portuguese and Spanish editions split that same material into three verses, which is why they print this refrain at 2:16.
Where this verse appears
The chapters around it alternate between the two lovers speaking, with images of spring, vines in flower, and an invitation to come outside.
This edition prints the speakers inside the text — chorus, bride, groom — so the refrain arrives already labelled: it is the bride talking, answering the chorus.
The closing image, of the beloved pasturing among the lilies, recurs in the book and works almost as his signature.
What it says
The sentence has two halves saying the same thing in opposite directions, and that symmetry carries the meaning. There is no possessing side and possessed side: both appear in both roles.
The order here is worth holding on to, because the book will invert it. She begins with him — he is hers — and only then says that she is his. When the refrain returns later, it opens with what she gives instead; and on a third pass the second half stops speaking of belonging altogether and speaks of where he turns. Same words, three settings.
What the line does not do is set out rules. There is no instruction here about marriage, roles or obligations. It is love poetry, and turning it into a relationship manual asks it for a genre it does not have. Jewish and Christian readers have long taken the book both as poetry between two people and as an image of God and his people; both readings are ancient, and neither is dismissed here.
What to do with it today
If you are using it at a wedding, read the two halves aloud slowly and separately. The sentence was built to be said twice, and the effect depends on it. Check the number against the Bible actually being read from on the day — it moves between editions.
Outside a wedding it works as a question. In your closest relationships, does the belonging run in both directions — or have you been treating someone as property, or accepting being treated that way?
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, teach me to belong without losing myself, and to receive someone without taking possession. Let my love fit both directions of the sentence. Amen.