Song of Solomon 8

1 Who will give you as a brother to me, one having nursed at the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you; yes, no one would despise me.

2 I would lead you, I would bring you into the house of my mother, she who taught me; I would give you to drink from the wine of spice, from the juice of my pomegranate.

3 His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand embraces me.

4 I adjure you⁺, O daughters of Jerusalem, why stir up and why awaken love until it pleases.

5 Who [is] this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.

6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For strong as death [is] love, cruel as Sheol [is] jealousy; its flames [are] flames of fire, a blazing flame.

7 Many waters are not able to quench love, and the rivers cannot wash it away. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, they would despise it [with great] despising.

8 A little sister [is] unto us, and breasts are not unto her. What shall we do for our sister, on the day one should speak for her?

9 If she [is] a wall, we will build upon her a tower of silver; and if she [is] a door, we will enclose her with a plank of cedar.

10 I [am] a wall, and my breasts [are] like towers. Then I have become in his eyes like one finding peace.

11 There was a vineyard unto Solomon in Baal-hamon. He gave out the vineyard to those keeping [it]; a man would bring for its fruit a thousand [pieces] of silver.

12 My vineyard [is]—my own—[is] before me; the thousand [is] unto you, O Solomon, and two hundred to those keeping watch over its fruit.

13 O [you] dwelling in the gardens, [my] companions are listening to your voice—let me hear it!

14 Flee, my beloved, and liken yourself to a gazelle, or to a young stag of the deer, on the mountains of spices.