Song of Solomon 8

Revised Geneva Translation

8 “Oh that you were as my brother who sucked the breasts of my mother. I would find you outside. I would kiss you. Then they would not despise you.

² “I will lead you and bring you into my mother’s house. There you shall teach me. I will make you drink spiced wine, new wine of the pomegranate.

³ “His left hand shall be under my head. And his right hand shall embrace me.

⁴ “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you neither stir up nor awaken my love until she pleases.”

⁵ “Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her well-beloved? I raised you up under an apple tree. There your mother conceived you. There she conceived who bore you.”

⁶ “Set me as a seal on your heart, as a signet upon your arm. For love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its coals are fiery coals, a vehement flame.

⁷ “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the rivers drown it. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, they would greatly despise it.”

⁸ “We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister when she shall be spoken for?

⁹ “If she is a wall, we will build a silver palace upon her. And if she is a door, we will keep her in with boards of cedar.”

¹⁰ “I am a wall. And my breasts are as towers. Then I was, in his eyes, as one who finds peace.

¹¹ “Solomon had a vine in Baal Hamon. He gave the vineyard to keepers. Everyone brought forth a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.

¹² “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. To you, O Solomon, belongs a thousand, and two hundred to those who keep its fruit.”

¹³ “O you who dwells in the gardens, the companions listen to your voice! Let me hear it!”

¹⁴ “O my well-beloved, flee away and be like the gazelle, or the young stag upon the mountains of spices.”