Song of Solomon 8

Longing for Her Beloved

8:1   Oh that you were like a brother to me
    who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
  If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
    and none would despise me.
2   I would lead you and bring you
    into the house of my mother—
    she who used to teach me.
  I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    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,
    that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases.
5   Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
    leaning on her beloved?
  Under the apple tree I awakened you.
  There your mother was in labor with you;
    there she who bore you was in labor.
6   Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm,
  for love is strong as death,
    jealousy¹ is fierce as the grave.²
  Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    the very flame of the LORD.
7   Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
  If a man offered for love
    all the wealth of his house,
    he³ would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

Others

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 on her a battlement of silver,
  but if she is a door,
    we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

10   I was a wall,
    and my breasts were like towers;
  then I was in his eyes
    as one who finds⁴ peace.
11   Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
    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 before me;
    you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
    and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

13   O you who dwell in the gardens,
    with companions listening for your voice;
    let me hear it.

She

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

Footnotes

[1] 8:6 Or ardor
[2] 8:6 Hebrew as Sheol
[3] 8:7 Or it
[4] 8:10 Or brings out

(ESV)