Song of Songs 8

Woman

1 I want you to be like a brother who drank at my mother's breasts!

I want us to be like a brother and sister.

So, if I found you outside, I would kiss you.

And nobody would think about me as a bad person.

2 I would lead you to my mother's house.

I would bring you to the mother who has taught me.

I would give to you wine with spices to drink.

I would give to you my pomegranate drink that tastes lovely.

Woman

3 His left arm is under my head and his right arm draws me near to him.

4 Daughters of Jerusalem,

please do not cause someone to feel love for another person;

not until he or she wants to.

I am saying this because I really mean it.

I beg you not to do it.

Friends

5 Someone is coming up from the dry, empty place with the man who loves her!

Her head is against the man's shoulder.

Woman

Under the apple tree, I woke you.

There your life started in your mother's body.

There your mother was in pain during your birth.

6 Draw me near to you like a seal over your heart.

Put me like a seal over your arm.

Keep me there always because love is as strong as death.

A dead person in a hole in the ground never comes out alive again.

A man who loves his wife will never let another man take her away from him.

And I do not want you to love another woman.

Love burns like a red-hot fire.

It burns like the hottest part of a large fire.

7 Lots of water cannot put it out.

Rivers cannot carry it away.

A rich man might give everything that he has to buy someone's love.

But people would tell him that he was very silly!

8:7A man might put a seal in something and hang it round his neck. So it would lie over his heart. Or he might wear it over his arm or on his finger.

Woman

8 My brothers had said:

‘We have a younger sister.

Her breasts have not yet grown.

What will we do on her behalf when it is the time for her to marry?’

9 My friends said:

‘If she is a wall, we will build towers out of silver on her.

If she is a door, we will put boards of cedar wood over her.’

10 I am a wall.

My breasts are like towers.

So, to him, I have become like someone who gives pleasure to him.

11 King Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon.

People could come and they could pay 11 kilos of silver for its fruit.

12 But my own vineyard is mine. It is a gift to you, my king.

The 11 kilos of silver are for you, my Solomon.

I give 2 kilos of silver to those who watch over its fruit.

8:12Baal Hamon may be the place where the vineyard was. Or perhaps it only means the rich country where Solomon was king. 11 kilos is the same as 24 pounds and 2 kilos is the same as 4 pounds. The numbers are not important.

Man

13 You have been in the garden with your friends for a long time.

Let me hear your voice!

Woman

14 You love me. Come away.

Be like a gazelle or like a young deer on the mountains that are full of spice.