NETfree - Song of Solomon - 8

8:1  The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how I wish you were my little brother, nursing at my mother's breasts; if I saw you outside, I could kiss you - surely no one would despise me!

8:2  I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house, the one who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.

8:3  The Beloved about Her Lover: His left hand caresses my head, and his right hand stimulates me.

8:4  The Beloved to the Maidens: I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem: "Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!"

8:5  The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.

8:6  The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame.

8:7  Surging waters cannot quench love; floodwaters cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.

8:8  The Beloved's Brothers: We have a little sister, and as yet she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?

8:9  If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar.

8:10  The Beloved: I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. Then I found favor in his eyes.

8:11  The Beloved to Her Lover: Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

8:12  My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone. The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon, and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.

8:13  The Lover to His Beloved: O you who stay in the gardens, my companions are listening attentively for your voice; let me be the one to hear it!

8:14  The Beloved to Her Lover: Make haste, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.