If only I could treat you like my brother,[a]
one who nursed at my mother’s breasts,
I would find you in public and kiss you,
and no one would scorn me.
I would lead you, I would take you,
to the house of my mother(A) who taught me.[b]
I would give you spiced wine to drink
from my pomegranate juice.
His left hand is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.(B)
Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you:
do not stir up or awaken love
until the appropriate time.(C)

Y Who is this(D) coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on the one she loves?

W I awakened you under the apricot tree.(E)
There your mother conceived you;
there she conceived and gave you birth.
Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.(F)
For love is as strong as death;(G)
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Love’s flames are fiery flames(H)
the fiercest of all.[c]
Mighty waters cannot extinguish love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If a man were to give all his wealth[d] for love,(I)
it would be utterly scorned.

B Our sister is young;
she has no breasts.(J)
What will we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
If she is a wall,
we will build a silver parapet on it.
If she is a door,
we will enclose it with cedar planks.[e](K)

10 W I am[f] a wall
and my breasts like towers.
So in his eyes I have become
like one who finds peace.[g]

11 Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon.(L)
He leased the vineyard to tenants.(M)
Each was to bring for his fruit
1,000 pieces of silver.(N)
12 I have my own vineyard.[h](O)
The 1,000 are for you, Solomon,
but 200 for those who guard its fruits.

13 M You[i] who dwell in the gardens—
companions(P) are listening for your voice—
let me hear you!(Q)

14 W Hurry to me, my love,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.(R)

Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 8:1 Lit Would that you were like a brother to me
  2. Song of Solomon 8:2 LXX adds and into the chamber of the one who bore me
  3. Song of Solomon 8:6 Or the blaze of the Lord
  4. Song of Solomon 8:7 Lit all the wealth of his house
  5. Song of Solomon 8:9 Vv. 8-9 may record what the girl’s brothers used to say.
  6. Song of Solomon 8:10 Or was
  7. Song of Solomon 8:10 In Hb, the word for peace sounds similar to Solomon and Shulammite.
  8. Song of Solomon 8:12 Lit My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; Sg 1:6
  9. Song of Solomon 8:13 In Hb, the word for You is feminine.

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