VIII. O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!

When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;

Yea, * I should not be despised.

2  I would lead thee, and abring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me:

I would cause thee to drink of bspiced wine, of the cjuice of my dpomegranate.

3  eHis left hand should be under my head,

eAnd his right hand should embrace me.

4  fI charge you, gO daughters of Jerusalem,

* That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

5  hWho is this that cometh up from the wilderness,

Leaning upon her beloved?

I iraised thee up under the kapple 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 la seal upon thine arm:

For mlove is strong as death;

nJealousy is * cruel as the grave:

The ocoals thereof are coals of fire,

Which hath pa most vehement qflame.

7  Many waters cannot quench love,

Neither can the floods drown it:

iIf a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

It would utterly be contemned.

8  We have a little sister, and rshe 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 spalace of silver:

And if she be a door, we will inclose her with tboards of cedar.

10  I am a wall, and my breasts like utowers:

Then was I in his eyes as one that found * favour.

11  Solomon had a vvineyard at wBaal-hamon;

xHe let out the vineyard unto ykeepers;

Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring za thousand pieces of silver.

12  My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:

Thou, O Solomon, must have za thousand,

And ythose that keep the fruit thereof atwo hundred.

13  bThou that dwellest in the gardens,

cThe companions hearken to thy voice:

dCause me to hear it.

14  e* Make haste, my beloved,

And fbe thou like to a roe or to a young hart

Upon the mountains of spices.