Song of Solomon, 8

1. Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother's breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I could kiss you without people thinking ill of me.

1. O that thou [wert] as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! [when] I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

2. I should lead you, I should take you into my mother's house, and you would teach me! I should give you spiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.

2. I would lead thee, [and] bring thee into my mother's house, [who] would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

3. His left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.

3. His left hand [should be] under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

4. LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before she pleases!

4. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, until he please.

5. Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, where your mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.

5. Who [is] this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth [that] bare thee.

6. BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself.

6. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love [is] strong as death; jealousy [is] cruel as the grave: the coals thereof [are] coals of fire, [which hath a] most vehement flame.

7. Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love, contempt is all that he would gain.

7. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if [a] man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

8. Our sister is little: her breasts are not yet formed. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

8. We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

9. If she is a rampart, on the crest we shall build a battlement of silver; if she is a door, we shall board her up with planks of cedar.

9. If she [be] a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she [be] a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

10. I am a wall, and my breasts represent its towers. And under their eyes I have found true peace.

10. I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

11. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon. He entrusted it to overseers, and each one was to pay him the value of its produce, a thousand shekels of silver.

11. Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand [pieces] of silver.

12. But I tend my own vineyard myself. You, Solomon, may have your thousand shekels, and those who oversee its produce their two hundred.

12. My vineyard, which [is] mine, [is] before me: thou, O Solomon, [must have] a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

13. You who dwell in the gardens, my companions listen for your voice; let me hear it.

13. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear [it].

14. Haste away, my love, be like a gazelle, a young stag, on the spice-laden mountains.

14. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.