Song of Solomon 8
1 Bride to Groom: Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me?
Who makes you as a brother to me, Suckling the breasts of my mother? I find you outside, I kiss you, Indeed, they do not despise me,
2 I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother’s house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates.
I lead you, I bring you into my mother’s house, She teaches me, I cause you to drink of the spiced wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate,
3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.
His left hand [is] under my head, And his right embraces me.
4 Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills.
I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, How you stir up, And how you wake the love until she pleases!
5 Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated.
Who [is] this coming from the wilderness, Hastening herself for her beloved? Under the citron-tree I have awoken you, There your mother pledged you, There she [who] bore you gave a pledge.
6 Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames. (Sheol h7585)
Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings [are] burnings of fire, a flame of YAH! (Sheol h7585)
7 A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing.
Many waters are not able to quench the love, And floods do not wash it away. If one gives all the wealth of his house for love, Treading down—they tread on it.
8 Chorus: Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon?
We have a little sister, and she does not have breasts, What do we do for our sister, In the day that it is told of her?
9 If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.
If she is a wall, we build by her a palace of silver. And if she is a door, We fashion by her board-work of cedar.
10 Bride to Chorus: I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace.
I [am] a wall, and my breasts as towers, Then I have been in his eyes as one finding peace.
11 The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver.
Solomon has a vineyard in Ba‘al-Hamon, He has given the vineyard to keepers, Each brings for its fruit one thousand pieces of silver;
12 Groom: My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit.
My vineyard—my own—is before me, The one thousand [is] for you, O Solomon. And the two hundred for those keeping its fruit. O dweller in gardens!
13 Bride to Groom: Your friends are attentive to those who have been dwelling in the gardens. Cause me to heed your voice.
The companions are attending to your voice, Cause me to hear. Flee, my beloved, and be like to a roe,
14 Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants.
Or to a young one of the harts on mountains of spices!
