וְרִדְּפָ֤ה אֶת־מְאַהֲבֶ֙יהָ֙ וְלֹֽא־תַשִּׂ֣יג אֹתָ֔ם וּבִקְשָׁ֖תַם וְלֹ֣א תִמְצָ֑א וְאָמְרָ֗ה אֵלְכָ֤ה וְאָשׁ֙וּבָה֙ אֶל־אִישִׁ֣י הָֽרִאשׁ֔וֹן כִּ֣י ט֥וֹב לִ֛י אָ֖ז מֵעָֽתָּה׃
און זי װעט נאָכיאָגן אירע ליבהאָבער און זײ ניט דער-גרײַכן, און זי װעט זײ זוכן און ניט געפֿינען; און זי װעט זאָגן: איך װעל גײן און זיך אומקערן צו מײַן ערשטן מאַן, װאָרום דענצמאָל איז מיר בעסער געװען װי אַצונד.
Tze'enah Ure'enah
“Hurry, my beloved” [8:14]. Make me fly from the exile, my friend, Holy One. “Swift as a gazelle” [8:14]. This means that Israel is compared to a stag. A stag, even if it runs to the ends of the earth, it always comes back to the first city from which it started. We find a story about a king called Dekeltinus who hunted several stags and covered their horns with gold and sent them to distant lands that are called Africa. After thirteen years, the stags came back to the first city where the king had hunted them and he recognized them because of their gilded horns. Similarly, Israel is compared to the stags, who even now are dispersed in the exile, from one end of the world to the other. When the Messiah will come, we will again return to the first place, to Jerusalem, as the verse says, “I will go and return to my first place.”30This “verse” is a conflation of Hosea 2:9 and 5:15. This means that I will go and will again return to my first city, Jerusalem. This should be soon, in our days, and let us say amen.
Rashi
Therefore, behold I will allure her I will persuade her to be drawn after Me (losanjier in O.F., to flatter or cajole). Other editions read: atrayray in O.F. (attirerai). I will lure, attract. And what is the allurement? and lead her into the desert In exile, which is to her like a desert and a wasteland. And there she will lay up to her heart that it was better for her when she performed My will than when she rebelled against Me.