Homecoming

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 bringsb 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!