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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, that thou mightest 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: Why should ye awaken, or stir up 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 and brought thee forth.⁶ Set me as a seal upon thy 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 gave over the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof brought in 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 gazelle or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.