when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;
yea, I should not be despised.
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 charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,
leaning upon her beloved?
I raised thee up under the apple tree:
there thy mother brought thee forth:
there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
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 coals thereof are coals of fire,
which hath a most vehement flame.
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,
it 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 palace of silver:
and if she be a door,
we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts like towers:
then was I in his eyes
as one that found favour.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon;
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, must have a thousand,
and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to 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.