8 If only I could treat you like my brother,[a]
one who nursed at my mother’s breasts,
I would find you in public and kiss you,
and no one would scorn me.
2 I would lead you, I would take you,
to the house of my mother(A) who taught me.[b]
I would give you spiced wine to drink
from my pomegranate juice.
3 His left hand is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.(B)
4 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you:
do not stir up or awaken love
until the appropriate time.(C)
5 Y Who is this(D) coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on the one she loves?
W I awakened you under the apricot tree.(E)
There your mother conceived you;
there she conceived and gave you birth.
6 Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.(F)
For love is as strong as death;(G)
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Love’s flames are fiery flames(H)—
the fiercest of all.[c]
7 Mighty waters cannot extinguish love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If a man were to give all his wealth[d] for love,(I)
it would be utterly scorned.
8 B Our sister is young;
she has no breasts.(J)
What will we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build a silver parapet on it.
If she is a door,
we will enclose it with cedar planks.[e](K)
10 W I am[f] a wall
and my breasts like towers.
So in his eyes I have become
like one who finds peace.[g]
11 Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon.(L)
He leased the vineyard to tenants.(M)
Each was to bring for his fruit
1,000 pieces of silver.(N)
12 I have my own vineyard.[h](O)
The 1,000 are for you, Solomon,
but 200 for those who guard its fruits.
13 M You[i] who dwell in the gardens—
companions(P) are listening for your voice—
let me hear you!(Q)
14 W Hurry to me, my love,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.(R)
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 8:1 Lit Would that you were like a brother to me
- Song of Solomon 8:2 LXX adds and into the chamber of the one who bore me
- Song of Solomon 8:6 Or the blaze of the Lord
- Song of Solomon 8:7 Lit all the wealth of his house
- Song of Solomon 8:9 Vv. 8-9 may record what the girl’s brothers used to say.
- Song of Solomon 8:10 Or was
- Song of Solomon 8:10 In Hb, the word for peace sounds similar to Solomon and Shulammite.
- Song of Solomon 8:12 Lit My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; Sg 1:6
- Song of Solomon 8:13 In Hb, the word for You is feminine.
Cross references
- 8:2 : Sg 3:4
- 8:3 : Sg 2:6
- 8:4 : Sg 2:7; 3:5
- 8:5 : Sg 3:6; 6:10
- 8:5 : Sg 2:3
- 8:6 : Sg 2:16; 6:3; 7:10
- 8:6 : Rm 8:38-39; 1Co 13:8
- 8:6 : Dt 32:21-22; Pr 6:34; 27:4
- 8:7 : Pr 6:35
- 8:8 : Ezk 16:7
- 8:9 : 1Kg 6:15
- 8:11 : Ec 2:4
- 8:11 : Mt 21:33
- 8:11 : Is 7:23
- 8:12 : Sg 1:6
- 8:13 : Sg 1:7
- 8:13 : Sg 2:14
- 8:14 : Sg 2:17