¹Who 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, ²I 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, ³His left hand is under my head, And his right doth embrace me. ⁴I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, How ye stir up, And how ye wake the love till she please!

⁵Who 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. ⁶Set 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! ⁷Many 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.

⁸We 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? ⁹If 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. ¹⁰I am a wall, and my breasts as towers, Then I have been in his eyes as one finding peace. ¹¹Solomon hath a vineyard in Baal-Hamon, He hath given the vineyard to keepers, Each bringeth for its fruit a thousand silverlings; ¹²My 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!

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

Chapter 1

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