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 you were like a brother to me, that nursed at my mother's breast! If I met you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me.

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 you and bring you into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranates.

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

3. O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!

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

4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it 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 that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in travail with you, there she who bore you was in travail.

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 your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, 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 floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.

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 has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is 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 is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose 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 was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.

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 Ba'al-ha'mon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit 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, my very own, is for myself; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

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

13. O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me 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 like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices.