6  ^gHow beautiful and ^hpleasant you are,

O loved one, with all your delights!¹

7  Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

8  I say I will climb the palm tree

and lay hold of its fruit.

Oh may your breasts be like ⁱclusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

9  and your ^jmouth² like the best wine.

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding over lips and teeth.³

10  ^kI am my beloved’s,

^land his desire is for me.

11  ^mCome, my beloved,

let us go out into the fields

and lodge in the villages;⁴

12  let us go out early to the vineyards

ⁿand see whether the vines have budded,

whether ^othe grape blossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

13  ^pThe mandrakes give forth fragrance,

and beside our doors are all choice fruits,

^qnew as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

1  Oh that you were like a brother to me

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outside, I would kiss you,

and none would despise me.

2  I would lead you and ^rbring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you ^sspiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

3  ^tHis left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

4  I ^uadjure you, O ^vdaughters of Jerusalem,

^wthat you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

5  ^xWho is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on 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 ^ya seal upon your arm,

for ^zlove is strong as death,

^ajealousy⁵ is fierce as the grave.⁶

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very ^bflame of the Lord.

7  Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his ^chouse,

he⁷ would be utterly despised.

8  We have a little sister,

and she ^dhas 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 on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with ^eboards of cedar.

10  ^fI was a wall,

and my ^gbreasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds⁸ peace.

11  Solomon had ^ha vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he ⁱlet out the vineyard to ^jkeepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit ^ka thousand pieces of silver.

12  My vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and ^lthe keepers of the fruit two hundred.

13  ^mO you who dwell in the gardens,

with ⁿcompanions listening for your voice;

^olet me hear it.

14  ^pMake haste, my beloved,

and be ^qlike a gazelle

or a young stag

on ^rthe mountains of spices.