1 Oh, that you were like a brother to me,who nursed at my mother’s breasts!If I found you outside,I would kiss you,and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you and bring youinto the house of my mother,she who used to instruct me.I would give you spiced wine to drink,the juice of my pomegranates.
3 His left hand is under my head,and his right arm embraces me!
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,do not stir up or awaken loveuntil it pleases.
5 Who is that coming up from the wilderness,leaning upon 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,passion fierce as the grave.Its fires of desire are as ardent flames,a most intense flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,neither can floods drown it.If a man offered for loveall the wealth of his house,it would be utterly condemned.
8 We have a little sister,and she has no breasts.What will we do for our sisteron the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,we will build upon 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 leased the vineyard to keepers;each man 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,my companions listen for your voice;let me hear it!
14 Make haste, my beloved,and be like a gazelle or a young stagon the mountains of spices!