1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!

When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;

Yea, I should not be despised.

2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me:

I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate.

3 His left hand should be under my head,

And his right hand should embrace me.

4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,

Leaning upon her beloved?

I raised thee up under the apple tree:

There thy mother brought thee forth:

There she brought thee forth that bare thee.

6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart,

As a seal upon thine arm:

For love is strong as death;

Jealousy is cruel as the grave:

The coals thereof are coals of fire,

Which hath a most vehement flame.

7 Many waters cannot quench love,

Neither can the floods drown it:

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

It would utterly be contemned.

8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts:

What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver:

And if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers:

Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

He let out the vineyard unto keepers;

Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:

Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand,

And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens,

The companions hearken to thy voice:

Cause me to hear it.

14 Make haste, my beloved,

And be thou like to a roe or to a young hart

Upon the mountains of spices.