song-of-solomon

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8 
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.

2 I would lead you, I would take you,

to the house of my mother who taught me.[b]

I would give you spiced wine to drink

from my pomegranate juice.

3 His left hand is under my head,

and his right arm embraces me.

4 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you:

do not stir up or awaken love

until the appropriate time.

5 Y Who is this coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on the one she loves?

W I awakened you under the apricot tree.

There your mother conceived you;

there she conceived and gave you birth.

6 Set me as a seal on your heart,

as a seal on your arm.

For love is as strong as death;

ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.

Love’s flames are fiery flames—

the fiercest of all.[c]

7 Mighty waters cannot extinguish love;

rivers cannot sweep it away.

If a man were to give all his wealth[d] for love,

it would be utterly scorned.

8 B Our sister is young;

she has no breasts.

What will we do for our sister

on the day she is spoken for?

9 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]

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.

He leased the vineyard to tenants.

Each was to bring for his fruit

1,000 pieces of silver.

12 I have my own vineyard.[h]

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 are listening for your voice—

let me hear you!

14 W Hurry to me, my love,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

on the mountains of spices.

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.