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Longing for Her Beloved

 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,
jealousy^[a] is fierce as the grave.^[b]
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,
he^[c] would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

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.

¹⁰ I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds^[d] 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.

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

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

Footnotes:

1. Song of Solomon 8:6 Or ardor
2. Song of Solomon 8:6 Hebrew as Sheol
3. Song of Solomon 8:7 Or it
4. Song of Solomon 8:10 Or brings out

Cross references:

1. Song of Solomon 8:2 : ch. 3:4
2. Song of Solomon 8:2 : [Prov. 9:2, 5]
3. Song of Solomon 8:3 : ch. 2:6, 7
4. Song of Solomon 8:4 : See ch. 2:7
5. Song of Solomon 8:4 : See ch. 1:5
6. Song of Solomon 8:4 : [ch. 2:7]
7. Song of Solomon 8:5 : See ch. 3:6
8. Song of Solomon 8:6 : Isa. 49:16; Jer. 22:24; Hag. 2:23
9. Song of Solomon 8:6 : [Rom. 8:35]
10. Song of Solomon 8:6 : [Ex. 34:14]; Deut. 4:24
11. Song of Solomon 8:6 : [Job 1:16]
12. Song of Solomon 8:7 : Prov. 6:35
13. Song of Solomon 8:8 : [Ezek. 16:7]
14. Song of Solomon 8:9 : [1 Kgs. 6:15]
15. Song of Solomon 8:10 : [ch. 4:12, 13]
16. Song of Solomon 8:10 : [ch. 4:5; 7:3]
17. Song of Solomon 8:11 : Eccles. 2:4
18. Song of Solomon 8:11 : [Matt. 21:33]
19. Song of Solomon 8:11 : ch. 1:6
20. Song of Solomon 8:11 : [Isa. 7:23]
21. Song of Solomon 8:12 : See Prov. 27:18
22. Song of Solomon 8:13 : [ch. 5:1]
23. Song of Solomon 8:13 : ch. 1:7
24. Song of Solomon 8:13 : ch. 2:14
25. Song of Solomon 8:14 : [Rev. 22:17, 20]
26. Song of Solomon 8:14 : See ch. 2:9
27. Song of Solomon 8:14 : [ch. 4:6]