Song of Songs 8

Song of Songs 8

1O that you were like a brother to me,

who nursed at my mother’s breast!

If I met you outside, I would kiss you,

and no one would despise me.

2I would lead you and bring you[#Song 3.4]

into my mother’s house

and into the chamber of the one who bore me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

from the juice of my pomegranates.

3O that his left hand were under my head[#Song 2.6]

and that his right hand embraced me!

4I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#Song 2.7; 3.5]

do not stir up or awaken love

until it is ready!

Homecoming

5Who is that coming up from the wilderness,[#Song 2.3; 3.6]

leaning upon 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.

6Set me as a seal upon your heart,[#Prov 6.34; Isa 49.16; Jer 22.24; Hag 2.23]

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

passion fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

a raging flame.

7Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If one offered for love

all the wealth of one’s house,

it would be utterly scorned.

8We have a little sister,[#Ezek 16.7]

and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister,

on the day when she is spoken for?

9If 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.

10I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who brings peace.

11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;[#Eccl 2.4; Song 1.6; 2.3; Isa 7.23; Mt 21.33]

he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

13O you who dwell in the gardens,[#Song 1.7; 2.14]

my companions are listening for your voice;

let me hear it.

14Make haste, my beloved,[#Song 2.17; 4.6]

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

upon the mountains of spices!

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ