Song of Solomon 8:5-14

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in travail with you,
    there she who bore you was in travail.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
    jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    a most vehement flame.
⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
    all the wealth of his house,
    it 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?
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^[a] peace.

¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Ba′al-ha′mon;
    he let out the vineyard to keepers;
    each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
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.

¹⁴ Make haste, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
    upon the mountains of spices.