Longing for Her Beloved
8:1 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 none would despise me.
2 I would lead you and bring you
into 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 love
until 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 love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised.
Final Advice
Others
8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on 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.
She
10 I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as 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.
He
13 O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.
She
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.
(ESV)
