Study

 8

O that you were like a brother to me,

who nursed at my mother’s breast!

If I met you outside, I would kiss you,

and no one would despise me.

2

I would lead you and bring you

into the house of my mother,

and into the chamber of the one who bore me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranates.

3

O that his left hand were under my head,

and that his right hand embraced me!

4

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

do not stir up or awaken love

until it is ready!

 

Homecoming

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 flashes are flashes of fire,

a raging flame.

7

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If one offered for love

all the wealth of one’s house,

it would be utterly scorned.

 

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 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 eyes

as one who brings peace.

11

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12

My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;

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 are listening for your voice;

let me hear it.

 

14

Make haste, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

upon the mountains of spices!