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!

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.

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.