8 O 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.
² I would lead you and bring you
    into my mother’s house
    and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^[a]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    from the juice of my pomegranates.^(A)
3 O that his left hand were under my head
    and that his right hand embraced me!^(B)
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!^(C)

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
    there she who bore you was in labor.^(D)

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    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.^(E)
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
    all the wealth of one’s house,
    it^[b] would be utterly scorned.

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?^(F)
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 was a wall,
    and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
    as one who brings^[c] peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
    he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;
    each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.^(G)
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 O you who dwell in the gardens,
    my companions are listening for your voice;
    let me hear it.^(H)

¹⁴ Make haste, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
    upon the mountains of spices!^(I)