Song of Solomon 8

Longing for Her Beloved

¹Oh that you were like a brother to me

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outside, I would kiss you,

and none would despise me.

²I would lead you and bring you[#3:4]

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

³His left hand is under my head,[#2:6, 7]

and his right hand embraces me!

⁴I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#2:7; #1:5]

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

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

leaning on 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,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy is fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the Lord .

⁷Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

⁸We have a little sister,

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 on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰I was a wall,[#4:12, 13]

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;[#Eccles. 2:4]

he let out the vineyard to keepers;

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

¹²My vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens,[#5:1]

with companions listening 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.