8
1 I would that thou, O my kinsman, wert he that sucked the breasts of my mother;
When I found thee without, I would kiss thee;
Yea, they should not despise me.
2 I would take thee, I would bring thee into my mother’s house,
And into the chamber of her that conceived me;
I would make thee to drink of spiced wine,
Of the juice of my pomegranates.
3 His left hand should be under my head,
And his right hand should embrace me.
4 I have charged you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
By the virtues of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
5 Who is this that comes up all white,
Leaning on her kinsman?
I raised thee up under an apple tree;
There thy mother brought thee forth;
There she that bore thee 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,
Her shafts are shafts of fire, even the flames thereof.
7 Much water will not be able to quench love,
And rivers shall not drown it;
If a man would give all his substance for love,
Men would utterly despise it.
8 Our sister is little, and has no breasts;
What shall we do for our sister,
In the day wherein she shall be spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, let us build upon her silver bulwarks;
And if she is a door, let us carve for her cedar panels.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers;
I was in their eyes as one that found peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon;
He let his vineyard to keepers;
Every one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, even mine, is before me;
Solomon shall have a thousand,
And they that keep its fruit two hundred.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
The companions hearken to thy voice:
Make me hear it.
14 Away, my kinsman, and be like a doe
Or a fawn on the mountains of spices.