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The Blue Letter Bible

Song of Songs 8 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Longing for Her Beloved

 

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.

I would lead you and bring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

   

Who 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.

   

Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy[fn] is fierce as the grave.[fn]

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the LORD.

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he[fn] would be utterly despised.

 

Final Advice

Others

 

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?

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 boards of cedar.

 

She

 

10 I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds[fn] peace.

   

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he let out the vineyard to keepers;

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

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

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

 

He

 

13 O you who dwell in the gardens,

with companions listening for your voice;

let me hear it.

 

She

 

14 Make haste, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

on the mountains of spices.

 
ESV Footnotes
Or ardor
Hebrew as Sheol
Or it
Or brings out
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Song of Songs Chapter 8 — Additional Translations: