Read the Bible

¹ I wish you were my brother,
who nursed at my mother's breast;
then, if I met you outdoors, I could kiss you,
and no one would look down on me.
² I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house,
and she would instruct me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
fresh juice from my pomegranates.

³ His left arm would be under my head
and his right arm around me.

⁴ I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!

⁵ Who is this, coming up from the desert,
leaning on her darling?

I awakened you under the apple tree.
It was there that your mother conceived you;
there she who bore you conceived you.

⁶ Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
passion as cruel as Sh'ol;
its flashes are flashes of fire,
[as fierce as the] flame of Yah.
⁷ No amount of water can quench love,
torrents cannot drown it.
If someone gave all the wealth in his house for love,
he would gain only utter contempt.

⁸ We have a little sister;
her breasts are still unformed.
What are we to do with our sister
when she is asked for in marriage?
⁹ If she is a wall,
we will build on her a palace of silver;
and if she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

¹⁰ I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers;
so in his view I am like one who brings peace.

¹¹ Shlomo had a vineyard at Ba‘al-Hamon,
and he gave the vineyard to caretakers;
each of them would pay for its fruit
a thousand pieces of silver.
¹² My vineyard is mine; I tend it, myself.
You can have the thousand, Shlomo,
and the fruit-caretakers, two hundred!

¹³ You who live in the garden,
friends are listening for your voice.
Let me hear it! —

¹⁴     — Flee, my darling!
Be like a gazelle or young stag
on the mountains of spices!