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

Longing for Her Beloved

Sng 8:1Oh 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.

Sng 8:2

Sng 8:2I 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.

Sng 8:3

Sng 8:3His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!

Sng 8:4

Sng 8:4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.

Sng 8:5

Sng 8:5Who 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.

Sng 8:6

Sng 8:6Set 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.

Sng 8:7

Sng 8:7Many 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

Sng 8:8

Sng 8:8Others
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?

Sng 8:9

Sng 8:9If 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.

Sng 8:10

Sng 8:10She
I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds[fn] peace.

Sng 8:11

Sng 8:11Solomon 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.

Sng 8:12

Sng 8:12My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

Sng 8:13

Sng 8:13He
O you who dwell in the gardens,
with companions listening for your voice;
let me hear it.

Sng 8:14

Sng 8:14She
Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

Or ardor

Hebrew as Sheol

Or it

Or brings out

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.

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

Song of Songs Chapter 8 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

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

Longing for Her Beloved

Final Advice

ESV Footnotes

Song of Songs Chapter 8 — Additional Translations:

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