¹Oh, that you were like my brother,

Who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I should find you outside,

I would kiss you;

I would not be despised.

²I would lead you and bring you

Into the house of my mother,

She who used to instruct me.

I would cause you to drink of spiced wine,

Of the juice of my pomegranate.

³His left hand is under my head,[#Song 2:6]

And his right hand embraces me.

⁴I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#Song 2:7; 3:5]

Do not stir up nor awaken love

Until it pleases.

Love Renewed in Lebanon

⁵Who is this coming up from the wilderness,[#Song 3:6]

Leaning upon her beloved?

I awakened you under the apple tree.

There your mother brought you forth;

There she who bore you brought you forth.

⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart,[#Is. 49:16; Jer. 22:24; Hag. 2:23]

As a seal upon your arm;

For love is as strong as death,

Jealousy as cruel as the grave;

Its flames are flames of fire,

A most vehement flame.

⁷Many waters cannot quench love,

Nor can the floods drown it.

If a man would give for love

All the wealth of his house,

It would be utterly despised.

⁸We have a little sister,[#Ezek. 23:33]

And she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister

In the day when she is spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall,

We will build upon her

A battlement of silver;

And if she is a door,

We will enclose her

With boards of cedar.

¹⁰I am a wall,

And my breasts like towers;

Then I became in his eyes

As one who found peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon;

He leased the vineyard to keepers;

Everyone was to bring for its fruit

A thousand silver coins .

¹²My own vineyard is before me.

You, O Solomon, may have a thousand,

And those who tend its fruit two hundred.

¹³You who dwell in the gardens,

The companions listen for your voice—

Let me hear it!

¹⁴Make haste, my beloved,[#Rev. 22:17, 20]

And be like a gazelle

Or a young stag

On the mountains of spices.