Song of Solomon 8
1 I wish that you were my brother who (nursed at/drank milk from) my mother’s breasts [when you were a baby], [because, if you were my brother], if I saw you when you were outside [the house], I could kiss you, and no one would say that my doing that was wrong.
Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?
2 [No one would object if] I led you to my mother’s house, to where my mother, who taught me [many things], lives. I would like to take you to my mother’s house because I would [like to make love to you] [EUP], [and that would be as delightful as] [MET] juice [squeezed] from pomegranates.
I will take hold of thee, and bring thee Into my mother’s house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.
3 You would put your left arm under my head and with your right arm hold me close.
His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.
4 [I would say to] you women of Jerusalem, “Solemnly promise me that you will not disturb us while we are making love until we are ready to quit.”
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.
5 Who is that [woman] who is coming up from the desert, (leaning on/clinging close to) the man who loves her? I woke you up [when you were] under the apple tree at the place where your mother conceived you, which is the same place where she gave birth to you.
Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.
6 Keep me [close to you], like [SIM] a seal on your heart, [or] like [SIM] a bracelet on your arm. Our love [for each other] is as powerful as death, it is as enduring as the grave. [It is as though] our love [for each other] bursts into flames and burns like a hot fire. (Sheol h7585)
Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames. (Sheol h7585)
7 Nothing can extinguish our love [for each other], not [even] a flood. If a man tried to cause a woman to love him by saying he would give her everything that is in his house, she would refuse.
Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.
8 We have a younger sister, and her breasts are still small. So this is [RHQ] what we should do for her on the day that we promise [some young man] that he can marry her:
Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?
9 If [her chest is flat like] [MET] a wall, we will [decorate it by] putting silver [jewels that are like] [MET] towers on it. Or, if she is [flat like] [MET] a door, we will decorate her with bits/pieces of cedar wood.
If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards or cedar.
10 My [chest was previously flat like] [MET] a wall, [but now] my breasts are [big] like [SIM] towers. So the one who loves me is delighted with me.
I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.
11 [King] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon, and he rented it to people for them to take care of it. He required each one to pay him 1,000 pieces of silver [each year] for the grapes [that they harvested].
The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.
12 [But my body is like] [MET] my own vineyard, and Solomon, I am giving it to you. [You do not need to pay me] 1,000 pieces of silver [to enjoy my body], but I will give 200 pieces of silver to those who take care of me [MET].
My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.
13 You are staying in the gardens and my friends are listening to your voice; [so] allow me to hear it, [too.]
Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.
14 You who love me, come [to me] quickly; [run to me] [MET, EUP] as fast as [SIM] a gazelle or young deer runs across [MET] hills of spices.
Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.
