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Song of Songs 8
The Beloved’s Wish Song 1
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Oh, how I wish you were my little brother, nursing at my mother’s breasts; if I saw you outside, I could kiss you – surely no one would despise me!
2
I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,
the one who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.
Double Refrain: Embracing and Adjuration 3
The Beloved about Her Lover:
His left hand caresses my head,
and his right hand stimulates me.
4
The Beloved to the Maidens:
I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:
“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”
The Awakening of Love 5
The Maidens about His Beloved:
Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.
The Nature of True Love 6
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame.
7
Surging waters cannot quench love;
floodwaters cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.
The Brother’s Plan and the Sister’s Reward 8
The Beloved’s Brothers:
We have a little sister, and as yet 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 barricade her with boards of cedar.
10
The Beloved:
I was a wall,
and my breasts were like fortress towers. Then I found favor in his eyes.
Solomon’s Vineyard and the Beloved’s Vineyard 11
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon;
he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
12
My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone.
The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon, and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.
Epilogue: The Lover’s Request and His Beloved’s Invitation 13
The Lover to His Beloved:
O you who stay in the gardens,
my companions are listening attentively for your voice; let me be the one to hear it!
14
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Make haste, my beloved!
Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.