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¹ Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! [when] I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, and none would despise me. 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 adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awaken love, until it please.

⁵ Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened thee: there thy mother was in travail with thee, there was she in travail that brought thee forth. 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 flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a very flame of the LORD. 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, he 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 turret of silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. ¹⁰ I am a wall, and my breasts like the towers [thereof]: then was I in his eyes as one that found peace. 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, shalt have the thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

¹³ Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken for 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.