Song of Songs 4:8-8:14

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁹ You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;
    you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,
    with one jewel of your necklace.^(B)
10 How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!
    How much better is your love than wine
    and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!^(C)
11 Your lips distill nectar, my bride;
    honey and milk are under your tongue;
    the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.^(D)
12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
    a garden^[b] locked, a fountain sealed.^(E)
13 Your channel^[c] is an orchard of pomegranates
    with all choicest fruits,
    henna with nard,^(F)
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
    with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
    with all chief spices—^(G)
15 a garden fountain, a well of living water,
    and flowing streams from Lebanon.^(H)

¹⁶ Awake, O north wind,
    and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden
    that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden
    that he may eat its choicest fruits.^(I)

5 I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
    I gather my myrrh with my spice;
    I eat my honeycomb with my honey;
    I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,
    and be drunk with love.^(J)

¹⁰ My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,
    distinguished among ten thousand.
¹¹ His head is the finest gold;
    his locks are wavy,
    black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves
    beside springs of water,
bathed in milk,
    fitly set.^[d](R)
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
    yielding fragrance.
His lips are lilies,
    dripping liquid myrrh.^(S)
14 His arms are rounded gold,
    set with jewels.
His body is an ivory panel,^[e]
    decorated with sapphires.
¹⁵ His legs are alabaster columns,
    set upon bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
    choice as the cedars.
¹⁶ His speech is most sweet,
    and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
    O daughters of Jerusalem.^(T)

6 Where has your beloved gone,
    O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned
    that we may seek him with you?^(U)

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.^(V)
3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine;
    he pastures his flock among the lilies.^(W)

¹¹ I went down to the nut orchard
    to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.^(AE)
12 Before I was aware, my desire set me
    in a chariot beside my prince.^[f]

^13 [g]Return, return, O Shulammite!
    Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?^[h](AF)

⁶ How fair and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, delectable maiden!^[i](AK)
7 You are stately^[j] 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,^(AL)
9 and your kisses^[k] like the best wine
    that goes down^[l] smoothly,
    gliding over lips and teeth.^[m]

¹⁰ I am my beloved’s,
    and his desire is for me.^(AM)
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.^(AN)
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.^(AO)

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.^[n]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    from the juice of my pomegranates.^(AP)
3 O that his left hand were under my head
    and that his right hand embraced me!^(AQ)
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!^(AR)

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

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.^(AT)
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
    all the wealth of one’s house,
    it^[o] 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?^(AU)
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^[p] 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.^(AV)
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.^(AW)

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