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¹ Who doth make thee as a brother to me, Sucking the breasts of my mother? I find thee without, I kiss thee, Yea, they do not despise me,² I lead thee, I bring thee in unto my mother's house, She doth teach me, I cause thee to drink of the perfumed wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate,³ His left hand [is] under my head, And his right doth embrace me.⁴ I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, How ye stir up, And how ye wake the love till she please!

⁵ Who [is] this coming from the wilderness, Hasting herself for her beloved? Under the citron-tree I have waked thee, There did thy mother pledge thee, There she gave a pledge [that] bare thee.⁶ Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal on thine arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings [are] burnings of fire, a flame of Jah!⁷ Many waters are not able to quench the love, And floods do not wash it away. If one give all the wealth of his house for love, Treading down -- they tread upon it.

⁸ We have a little sister, and breasts she hath not, What do we do for our sister, In the day that it is told of her?⁹ If she is a wall, we build by her a palace of silver. And if she is a door, We fashion by her board-work of cedar.¹⁰ I [am] a wall, and my breasts as towers, Then I have been in his eyes as one finding peace.¹¹ Solomon hath a vineyard in Baal-Hamon, He hath given the vineyard to keepers, Each bringeth for its fruit a thousand silverlings;¹² My vineyard -- my own -- is before me, The thousand [is] for thee, O Solomon. And the two hundred for those keeping its fruit. O dweller in gardens!

¹³ The companions are attending to thy voice, Cause me to hear. Flee, my beloved, and be like to a roe,¹⁴ Or to a young one of the harts on mountains of spices!