Longing for Her Beloved

1Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

2I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother's house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.

3His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.

The Friends

5Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.

Solomon

6Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

7Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

The Friends

8Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

9If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

The Bride

10I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.

11The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.

12My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.

Solomon

13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.

The Bride

14Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.