Song of Solomon 8 - Good News Bible (Catholic edition in Septuagint order)

¹ I wish that you were my brother, that my mother had nursed you at her breast. Then, if I met you in the street, I could kiss you and no one would mind.

² I would take you to my mother's house, where you could teach me love. I would give you spiced wine, my pomegranate wine to drink.

³ Your left-hand is under my head, and your right-hand caresses me.

The Sixth Song

⁴ Promise me, women of Jerusalem, that you will not interrupt our love.

⁵ Who is this coming from the desert, arm in arm with her lover? Under the apple tree I woke you, in the place where you were born.

⁶ Close your heart to every love but mine; hold no one in your arms but me. Love is as powerful as death; passion is as strong as death itself. It bursts into flame and burns like a raging fire.

⁷ Water cannot put it out; no flood can drown it. But if anyone tried to buy love with wealth, contempt is all they would get.

⁸ We have a young sister, and her breasts are still small. What will we do for her when a young man comes courting?

⁹ If she is a wall, we will build her a silver tower. But if she is a gate, we will protect her with panels of cedar.

¹⁰ I am a wall, and my breasts are its towers. My lover knows that with him I find contentment and peace.

¹¹ Solomon has a vineyard in a place called Baal Hamon. There are farmers who rent it from him; each one pays a thousand silver coins.

¹² Solomon is welcome to his thousand coins, and the farmers to 200 as their share; I have a vineyard of my own!

¹³ Let me hear your voice from the garden, my love; my companions are waiting to hear you speak.

¹⁴ Come to me, my lover, like a gazelle, like a young stag on the mountains where spices grow.