1 Oh that thou wert as my brother, That sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; Yea, and none would despise me.
2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, That thou mightest instruct me; I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand should be under my head, And his right hand should embrace me.
4 ’I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem: Why should ye awaken, or stir up love, Until it please?’
5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree I awakened thee; There thy mother was in travail with thee; There was she in travail and brought thee forth.
6 Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm; For love is strong as death, Jealousy is cruel as the grave; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of the LORD.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can the floods drown it; If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be contemned.
8 We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts; What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for?
9 If she be a wall, We will build upon her a turret of silver; And if she be a door, We will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I am a wall, And my breasts like the towers thereof; Then was I in his eyes As one that found peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; He gave over the vineyard unto keepers; Every one for the fruit thereof Brought in a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, The companions hearken for thy voice: ‘Cause me to hear it.’
14 Make haste, my beloved, And be thou like to a gazelle or to a young hart Upon the mountains of spices.