Song of Solomon 8

2 I would bring you to my childhood home, and there you would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, my sweet pomegranate wine.

3 Your left hand would be under my head and your right hand would embrace me.

4 "I want you to promise, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken love until the time is right.*" [Young Women of Jerusalem:]¹

5 "Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her lover?" [Young Woman:] "I aroused you under the apple tree, where your mother gave you birth, where in great pain she delivered you.

6 Place me like a seal over your heart, or like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, and its jealousy is as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.

7 Many waters cannot quench love; neither can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with everything he owned, his offer would be utterly despised." [The Young Woman's Brothers:]

8 "We have a little sister too young for breasts. What will we do if someone asks to marry her?

9 If she is chaste, we will strengthen and encourage her. But if she is promiscuous, we will shut her off from men.*" [Young Woman:]²

10 "I am chaste, and I am now full breasted. And my lover is content with me.

11 "Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon, which he rents to some farmers there. Each of them pays one thousand pieces of silver* for its use.³

12 But as for my own vineyard, O Solomon, you can take my thousand pieces of silver. And I will give two hundred pieces of silver* to those who care for its vines." [Young Man:]⁴

13 "O my beloved, lingering in the gardens, how wonderful that your companions can listen to your voice. Let me hear it, too!" [Young Woman:]

14 "Come quickly, my love! Move like a swift gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of spices."

Read Isaiah 1

1: Or not to awaken love until it is ready.

2: Hebrew If she is a wall, we will build battlements of silver on her; but if she is a door, we will surround her with panels of cedar.

3: Hebrew 1,000 shekels of silver, about 25 pounds or 11.4 kilograms in weight; also in 8:12.

4: Hebrew 200 [shekels], about 5 pounds or 2.3 kilograms in weight.

^{New Living Translation Bible and Notes used with permission Tyndale House Publishers.}