Song of Solomon 8 WBT
Summary: The woman wishes her beloved were like a brother she could kiss openly without shame and bring to her mother's house, again repeating the refrain against awakening love before its time. A poem on love's power follows, one of the book's best-known passages: "love is strong as death... many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it" (v. 6-7), and love cannot be bought with all a man's wealth. The scene shifts to a memory of a young sister with no breasts yet, and brothers debating how to guard her depending on whether she is a "wall" or a "door"; the woman answers that she is a wall whose breasts are like towers, bringing her beloved contentment, alongside a note about Solomon's own vineyard let out to keepers. The book closes with the beloved wanting to hear her voice and her final words urging him to be swift, "like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices" (v. 14).
1O that thou [wert] as my brother, that was nourished at the breasts of my mother! [when] I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yes, I should not be despised.
2I 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.
3His left hand [should be] under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
4I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not, nor awake [my] love, until he please.
5Who [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] bore thee.
6Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for love [is] strong as death; jealousy [is] cruel as the grave: the coals of it [are] coals of fire, [which hath] a most vehement flame.
7Many 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.
8We 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?
9If she [is] a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she [is] a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
10I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; every one for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand [pieces] of silver.
12My vineyard which [is] mine, [is] before me: thou, O Solomon, [must have] a thousand, and those that keep the fruit of it two hundred.
13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear [it].
14Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
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