[1] The Girl: "Oh, if only you were my brother; then I could kiss you no matter who was watching, and no one would laugh at me. [2] I would bring you to my childhood home, and there you would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, sweet pomegranate wine. [3] His left hand would be under my head and his right hand would embrace me. [4] I adjure you, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken him until he pleases." The Young Women of Jerusalem: [5] "Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?" King Solomon: "Under the apple tree where your mother gave birth to you in her travail, there I awakened your love." The Girl: [6] "Seal me in your heart with permanent betrothal, for love is strong as death, and jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. It flashes fire, the very flame of Jehovah. [7] Many waters cannot quench the flame of love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man tried to buy it with everything he owned, he couldn't do it." The Girl's Brothers: [8] "We have a little sister too young for breasts. What shall we do if someone asks to marry her?" King Solomon: [9] "If she has no breasts, we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and if she is a door, we will enclose her with cedar boards." The Girl: [10] "I am slim, tall, and full-breasted, and I have found favor in my lover's eyes. [11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon, which he rented out to some farmers there, the rent being one thousand pieces of silver from each. [12] But as for my own vineyard, you, O Solomon, shall have my thousand pieces of silver, and I will give two hundred pieces to those who care for it. [13] O my beloved, living in the gardens, how wonderful that your companions may listen to your voice; let me hear it too. [14] Come quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or young deer upon the mountains of spices."
