Song of Solomon 8

Longing for Her Beloved

1  Oh that you were like a brother to me
who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
and none would despise me.
 2 I would lead you and a bring you
into the house of my mother—
she who used to teach me.
I would give you b spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranate.
 3  c His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
 4 I d adjure you, O e daughters of Jerusalem,
f that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
 5  g Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
there she who bore you was in labor.
 6  Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as h a seal upon your arm,
for i love is strong as death,
j jealousy ▼
▼ Or ardor
 is fierce as the grave. ▼
▼ Hebrew as  Sheol

Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very m flame of the  Lord.
 7 Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his n house,
he ▼
▼ Or it
 would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

Others

8  We have a little sister,
and she p has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
 9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with q boards of cedar.

She

10  r I was a wall,
and my s breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds ▼
▼ Or brings out
 peace.
 11  Solomon had u a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he v let out the vineyard to w keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit x a thousand pieces of silver.
 12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and y the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

13  z O you who dwell in the gardens,
with aa companions listening for your voice;
ab let me hear it.

She

14  ac Make haste, my beloved,
and be ad like a gazelle
or a young stag
on ae the mountains of spices.
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