Read the Bible

¹ O that you were like a brother to me,
    who nursed at my mother's breast!
If I met you outside, I would kiss you,
    and no one would despise me.
² I would lead you and bring you
    into the house of my mother,
    and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^[a]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    the juice of my pomegranates.
³ O that his left hand were under my head,
    and that his right hand embraced me!
⁴ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    do not stir up or awaken love
    until it is ready!

⁵ Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
    leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
    there she who bore you was in labor.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
    passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    a raging flame.
⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
    all the wealth of one's house,
    it would be utterly scorned.

⁸ We have a little sister,
    and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister,
    on the day when she is spoken for?
⁹ If she is a wall,
    we will build upon her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door,
    we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
¹⁰ I was a wall,
    and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
    as one who brings^[b] peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
    he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;
    each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
¹² My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;
    you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
    and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³ O you who dwell in the gardens,
    my companions are listening for your voice;
    let me hear it.

¹⁴ Make haste, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
    upon the mountains of spices!