Cânticos 8

¹ Oh, that you were like my brother, who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I should find you outside, I would kiss you; I would not be despised.

² I would lead you and bring you into my mother’s house, to teach me; I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

³ To the Daughters of Jerusalem: His left hand under my head, and his right hand embracing me.

⁴ I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem: Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

⁵ A Relative: Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree. There your mother travailed with you; there she travailed with you and bore you.

⁶ Shulamite to Her Beloved: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as Sheol; its flames are flames of fire, a flame of YAH.

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the rivers overflow it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be despised with contempt.

⁸ Relatives: We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is spoken for?

⁹ If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; and if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰ Shulamite: I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who found peace.

¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon; he leased the vineyard to keepers; everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

¹² To Solomon: My own vineyard is before me. You, O Solomon, may have a thousand, and those who tend its fruit two hundred.

¹³ The Beloved: You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice; let me hear it!

¹⁴ Shulamite: Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.