Chapter 8
Song of Solomon
Verse 1Oh that you were like a brother to mewho nursed at my mother’s breasts!If I found you outside, I would kiss you,and none would despise me.Verse 2I would lead you and bring youinto the house of my mother—she who used to teach me.I would give you spiced wine to drink,the juice of my pomegranate.Verse 3His left hand is under my head,and his right hand embraces me!Verse 4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,that you not stir up or awaken loveuntil it pleases.Verse 5Who is that coming up from the wilderness,leaning on her beloved?Under the apple tree I awakened you.There your mother was in labor with you;there she who bore you was in labor.Verse 6Set me as a seal upon your heart,as a seal upon your arm,for love is strong as death,jealousy is fierce as the grave.Its flashes are flashes of fire,the very flame of the LORD.Verse 7Many waters cannot quench love,neither can floods drown it.If a man offered for loveall the wealth of his house,he would be utterly despised.OthersVerse 8We have a little sister,and she has no breasts.What shall we do for our sisteron the day when she is spoken for?Verse 9If she is a wall,we will build on her a battlement of silver,but if she is a door,we will enclose her with boards of cedar.SheVerse 10I was a wall,and my breasts were like towers;then I was in his eyesas one who finds peace.Verse 11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;he let out the vineyard to keepers;each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.Verse 12My vineyard, my very own, is before me;you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.HeVerse 13O you who dwell in the gardens,with companions listening for your voice;let me hear it.SheVerse 14Make haste, my beloved,and be like a gazelleor a young stagon the mountains of spices.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.