Song of Songs 7-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Expressions of Praise
7 How graceful are your feet in sandals,
O queenly maiden!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of a master hand.(A)
2 Your navel is a rounded bowl;
may it never lack mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
encircled with lilies.
3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.(B)
4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
overlooking Damascus.(C)
5 Your head crowns you like Carmel,
and your flowing locks are like purple;
a king is held captive in the tresses.(D)
6 How fair and pleasant you are,
O loved one, delectable maiden
7 You are stately[b] as a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its branches.”
O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,(F)
9 and your kisses[c] like the best wine
that goes down[d] smoothly,
gliding over lips and teeth.[e]
10 I am my beloved’s,
and his desire is for me.(G)
11 Come, my beloved,
let us go forth into the fields
and lodge in the villages;
12 let us go out early to the vineyards;
let us see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.(H)
13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
and over our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.(I)
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.[f]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
from the juice of my pomegranates.(J)
3 O that his left hand were under my head
and that his right hand embraced me!(K)
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(L)
Homecoming
5 Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
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.(M)
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.(N)
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of one’s house,
it[g] 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?(O)
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[h] 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.(P)
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.(Q)
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
upon the mountains of spices!(R)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.