Song of Solomon, 8

1. Oh, that you were my brother, nursed at my mother's breasts! If I met you out of doors, I would kiss you and none would taunt me.

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.

2. I would lead you, bring you in to the home of my mother. There you would teach me to give you spiced wine to drink and pomegranate juice.

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.

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

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

4. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and hinds of the field, Do not arouse, do not stir up love, before its own time.

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

5. Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning upon her lover? G Under the apple tree I awakened you; it was there that your mother conceived you, it was there that your parent conceived.

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.

6. Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; For stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames are a blazing fire.

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.

7. Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away. Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love, he would be roundly mocked.

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.

8. "Our sister is little and she has no breasts as yet. What shall we do for our sister when her courtship begins?

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?

9. If she is a wall, we will build upon it a silver parapet; If she is a door, we will reinforce it with a cedar plank."

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.

10. I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. So now in his eyes I have become one to be welcomed.

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

11. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he gave over the vineyard to caretakers. For its fruit one would have to pay a thousand silver pieces.

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.

12. My vineyard is at my own disposal; the thousand pieces are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred for the caretakers of its fruit.

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

13. O garden-dweller, my friends are listening for your voice, let me hear it!

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

14. Be swift, my lover, like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!

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