1 Oh that you were like a brother to mewho nursed at my mother’s breasts!If I found you outside, I would kiss you,and none would despise me.
2 I would lead you and bring youinto the house of my mother—she who used to teach me.I would give you spiced wine to drink,the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand is under my head,and his right hand embraces me!
4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken loveuntil it pleases.
5 Who is that coming up from the wilderness,leaning on her beloved?Under the apple tree I awakened you.There your mother was in labor with you;there she who bore you was in labor.
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart,as a seal upon your arm,for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.Its flashes are flashes of fire,the very flame of the Lord.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,neither can floods drown it.If a man offered for loveall the wealth of his house,he would be utterly despised.
8 We have a little sister,and she has no breasts.What shall we do for our sisteron the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,we will build on her a battlement of silver,but if she is a door,we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I was a wall,and my breasts were like towers;then I was in his eyesas one who finds peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;he let out the vineyard to keepers;each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me;you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.
14 Make haste, my beloved,and be like a gazelleor a young stagon the mountains of spices.