Song of Solomon 7-8

Complete Jewish Bible

[Chorus]

7 ^(6:13)Come back, come back, girl from Shulam!
Come back, come back to where we can see you!
Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam
as if she were dancing for two army camps?

[He]

²⁽¹⁾How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
you daughter of princes!
The curves of your thighs are like a necklace
made by a skilled craftsman.
³⁽²⁾Your navel is like a round goblet
that never lacks spiced wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat
encircled by lilies.
⁴⁽³⁾Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
⁵⁽⁴⁾Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
your eyes like the pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bat-Rabbim,
your nose like a tower in the L’vanon
overlooking Dammesek.
⁶⁽⁵⁾You hold your head like the Karmel,
and the hair on your head is like purple cloth —
the king is held captive in its tresses.

⁷⁽⁶⁾How beautiful you are, my love,
how charming, how delightful!
⁸⁽⁷⁾Your appearance is stately as a palm tree,
with its fruit clusters your breasts.
⁹⁽⁸⁾I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree,
I will take hold of its branches.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
your breath as fragrant as apples,
¹⁰⁽⁹⁾and your mouth like the finest wine.

[She]

May the wine go straight to the man I love
and gently move the lips of those who are asleep.
¹¹⁽¹⁰⁾I belong to my darling,
and his desire is for me.

¹²⁽¹¹⁾Come, my darling, let’s go out to the country
and spend the nights in the villages.
¹³⁽¹²⁾We’ll get up early and go to the vineyards
to see if the vines have budded,
to see if their flowers have opened,
or if the pomegranate trees are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹⁴⁽¹³⁾The mandrakes are sending out their fragrance,
all kinds of choice fruits are at our doors,
fruits both new and old, my darling,
which I have kept in store for you.

8 I wish you were my brother,
who nursed at my mother’s breast;
then, if I met you outdoors, I could kiss you,
and no one would look down on me.
²I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,
and she would instruct me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
fresh juice from my pomegranates.

³His left arm would be under my head
and his right arm around me.

⁴I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!

[Chorus]

⁵Who is this, coming up from the desert,
leaning on her darling?

[He]

I awakened you under the apple tree.
It was there that your mother conceived you;
there she who bore you conceived you.

[She]

⁶Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
passion as cruel as Sh’ol;
its flashes are flashes of fire,
[as fierce as the] flame of Yah.
⁷No amount of water can quench love,
torrents cannot drown it.
If someone gave all the wealth in his house for love,
he would gain only utter contempt.

[Chorus]

⁸We have a little sister;
her breasts are still unformed.
What are we to do with our sister
when she is asked for in marriage?
⁹If she is a wall,
we will build on her a palace of silver;
and if she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

[She]

¹⁰I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers;
so in his view I am like one who brings peace.

¹¹Shlomo had a vineyard at Ba‘al-Hamon,
and he gave the vineyard to caretakers;
each of them would pay for its fruit
a thousand pieces of silver.
¹²My vineyard is mine; I tend it, myself.
You can have the thousand, Shlomo,
and the fruit-caretakers, two hundred!